Destiny's Wrath (Destiny Series - Book 3) (10 page)

“
What’s her name?”

I hesitated for a second and saw Maggie’s eyes pleading with me. “Renny. Her name is Renny. I’ll contact her and see if she can help.”

“
What’s her number?”

“
I think I should call her first before I give you her information.” It occurred to me I’d never called her on the phone before. I knew Max had her number programmed into his cell, but I couldn’t be sure she hadn’t been listening in on our little visit, and I didn’t want her angry with me over this.

“
Let me see if I have this right: You think Jimmy was somehow influenced by this Samael guy. You don’t know anything about him, other than his first name. You know someone who knows Samael better than you, but you won’t give me a means to contact her. Little lady, you are dangerously close to impeding a police investigation.”

Dennis stood up to walk us out to the truck. As we crossed the door’s threshold, just out of Maggie’s hearing, “I don’t know what you two planned to accomplish today, but if this Samael doesn’t exist, I’m going to find you both. Maggie doesn’t need anyone giving her false hope right now; she’s hanging on by a thread.”

“
Oh, he exists all right. My guess is that Jimmy will be too scared to talk about him.”

Dennis handed me his card, “If you see him, or think of anything that’ll help me find him, you better pick up the phone.”

Max and I got into the rental car and made our getaway. We had just cleared the media gauntlet when he murmured, “Well, that went better than I expected.”

“
Were you in the same living room as I was?”

The grin that I love erupted, “It could have gone much worse. The cop could have thought we were accomplices. He could have put handcuffs on us for withholding evidence. Maggie could have opened the front door and invited all the news stations in. Yes - that went better than expected.”

“
You are so hot when you think you’re going to be arrested.” I leaned over, close to his ear and whispered, “There is no one I’d rather be locked up with.”

There wasn’t much conversation on the way back to our motel. We still didn’t have a game plan on how we could possibly help Jimmy. It’s not like we could send a priest uninvited to a jail. This whole situation didn’t make any sense. The last time we were involved with Samael, he was adamant about not screwing with people’s destinies. It couldn’t possibly have been everyone’s destinies to be slaughtered, especially the children. He should have tried to stop it. Maybe he wasn’t to blame? Maybe this Jimmy really was a psychopath who was going to erupt no matter what.

As I stood inside the motel room contemplating whether we were wrong, I felt Max come up behind me. His lips found my neck and gave me goose bumps. I stood there enjoying the shiver as he wrapped his arms around me, caressing my abdomen. I turned to embrace him and my lips found his. It was amazing that he was still able to bring out the “frisky” in me with almost no effort on his part.

“
Lauren, I think we should talk
.” Renny’s voice echoed in my mind. I ignored her as her voice echoed a few more times. I was otherwise occupied, so I didn’t respond and I blocked her communication.

A minute or two passed before I heard Max’s voice, frustrated and loud. “For Pete’s sake, Renny, she’s right here.” A short pause from Max and he responded to the silence, “I don’t know, ask her yourself!” More silence, then, “Fine.”

Max rolled his eyes and backed away from me, the frustration in his voice for Renny melted away as he talked to me, “Renny really wants to talk to you. She’s on her way here.”

I knew we didn’t have much of a choice. As much as I needed to recharge with some alone time with Max, the reason we were here was Jimmy. Renny had answers that we wouldn’t be able to get anywhere else.

Not long after, the three of us were sitting around a little dinette table in the motel room. Renny began, “I know you two harbor much guilt about the murders here. I’ve already told you both: you had no hand in them. There is little that could have been done to prevent them. You both need to return home. Your presence is not needed, and your involvement is not desired. I wish you both the best of luck in the future, and I look forward to seeing you under better circumstances.”

Max leaned toward her and began speaking before I could get a thought formed in my head, “I don’t think this was our fault. I think it was yours!”

Renny is telepathic. She looks a little like a younger, lighter-skinned version of Whoopi Goldberg. She wears shoulder length dread-locks, a welcoming smile, and right this second - eyeballs as big as olives. You would think that no one could sneak up and surprise her like that, but Max must have been blocking his thoughts from her because she was completely taken off guard. “My fault? I did not even know who Samael’s host was! You cannot possibly levy the blame on the Council.”

“
What you don’t seem to get: when Samael was in me - I was in control. He didn’t have the kind of influence on me that he did on that kid. If you would have let him be, I would have figured out a better solution than letting him ‘host-swap’ and go into hiding. You and your precious Council wouldn’t let that be one of the available options that day.”

“
It’s my fault we wanted to rid the planet of Samael’s existence? You cannot possibly believe that I could foresee these events.”

“
You and your stupid Council decided that with Samael in me, the best way to destroy him was to murder me. The fact that we found a way to keep me alive, you think that somehow translates to it being my fault? You’re frickin’ nuts, Renny!”

“
There is enough blame to go around; we do not need to pass it around like a potato.”

“
Screw you.”

Renny turned her attention to me. “Lauren, if Samael is still in the young man, and they go to prison, Samael could easily change hosts again, and cause chaos all over again. We need you and Max to leave. Your presence constitutes a wild card, and we cannot take the chance with either of your lives.”

“
Renny, because Samael was in Max before, is he at a greater risk of possession again?”

“
We don’t know, dear, we just don’t know. Max is the only known host that has been permitted to live.”

Max cut in, full of rage, “Permitted? You permitted me to live? You’re bat-shit crazy. Dakota stopped you from murdering me! Get out, now.”

“
Dakota is certainly more resourceful than we had given her credit for. Her intervention is what allowed this atrocity to take place. I do not recommend you seek her assistance again. The results this time were tragic; a second time could be disastrous.”

A friendly voice came through the closed door, “Renny, I wish I could say it was a pleasure to see you again, but as always, it is the bane of my existence to be near you.” The door opened, revealing Dakota smiling brightly.

“
Dakota, stay away from these two. You have no hold over them. They cannot be influenced by you.”

“
Well, isn’t that the pot calling the kettle black? If my ears are not deceiving me, I believe Max has already dismissed you.”

A tense stalemate between the two women took place, like a school-yard stand-off, both waiting for the other to flinch or to back down. Eventually, Renny bowed her head toward Max and me, stood up from the table, and walked out the door.

Dakota didn’t wait to be invited in; she stepped in and took Renny’s place at the dinette.

Once Renny was well past ear shot, Dakota focused her attention on Max and me. “You two have no business being here, but it is not my place to tell you to leave. You are barking up the wrong tree with Maggie; she is but a distraught mother. She never saw the evil that resided in her son, and once the initial shock is over, she’ll turn a blind eye to the evil again. If you want to help, steer the policeman in the right direction.”

“
Wait, the policeman? What do we tell him?”

“
That is entirely up to you. As I said, you should not be involved. But neither of you are intelligent enough to come to that conclusion on your own. You won’t listen to Renny, so I’m equally certain you won’t listen to me. Do what you will, but you have been warned.”

“
We’ve been warned?”

“
I agree with Renny: you two have no business here. No one from the Cabinet can get close enough to the investigation to influence it. You seem to have a knack for law enforcement. Share only as much as is necessary with this policeman you met with the boy’s mother.”

“
We can’t just tell him there’s a demon inside Jimmy.”

“
You forget the true problem. Samael is living in Jimmy because he was not strong enough to continue on in his true form. He has gained strength these last several months. He may soon be able to shift into anything again. It isn’t like Samael to allow destinies to be so far altered from their mapped path. The Cabinet is concerned that Samael may be getting ready to morph into a new being.”

“
Like a shape shifter again?”

“
No, his true form is that of a shape shifter. Although he tends to resonate to evil, up until now he has maintained that the universe must stay in balance. Something may have changed while in this host. We just don’t know.”

“
So he isn’t in favor of balance anymore?”

Dakota didn’t look like she had an answer. Instead she asked, “Max, when he resided in you, did he ever share anything about his intentions?”

“
No, not really.” Max looked away from Dakota and looked straight at me when he continued, “He really had a thing for Lauren. Sometimes I couldn’t tell if he didn’t have some sort of a connection to her specifically. He refused to let me distance myself from her.”

“
How do you mean?”

“
I was still trying to deal with having Samael in there with me: I tried not to see, or to talk to, or even to think about Lauren. I was worried sharing anything about her with Samael could put her at risk. It seemed like my mind was always wandering to her, like my thoughts weren’t all my own. This one time he made me believe that he had taken control of my body while I slept and he hurt her. At the time I thought he was just pushing my buttons, but looking back, he was really obsessed with her.”

I took Max’s hand in mine with a quick squeeze.

Dakota pondered this for a minute and absently stated, “So, Lauren is likely the one best able to communicate with Samael.”

“
What? No, that’s not what I meant.”

“
Max, you said it yourself. If he feels a connection or a kinship to her, Lauren is our best shot at finding out what is going on with Samael. If he is getting ready to morph into a new entity, we’ll all need to be involved.”

“
You just told us we shouldn’t be anywhere near here. Which is it?”

This time Dakota stopped talking to Max and redirected her answer to me. “Lauren, you are able to bend destinies. Up until now, there has been little need for you to use your birthright. The Cabinet and the Council are opposing forces working toward the same goal. You are a wildcard like Samael has always been. In the past, he was neither good nor evil – he just was. These last few months, I fear that with you able to bend destinies and your only interest in doing so is for good purposes, he may evolve into a higher order demon, one that is capable of pure evil. Possibly, the universe’s way of ensuring balance remains. If this is the universe’s will, the Cabinet will not intervene. You two will receive no assistance from us.”

“
So, Samael and I will be like you and Renny?”

“
Yes, but out of balance. Samael is not mortal. You are.”

That sunk in for a second before I answered, “We’re going to find a way to see Jimmy and Samael. It doesn’t do us any good to speculate or guess. You and Renny have both told us to leave, yet now you tell me I’m the best bet for communication with Samael. Don’t try your ‘
Doubt
-Jedi-Mind-Trick on me. I’m not scared of him.”

Dakota stood up from the table, opened the door, and walked away without another word.

Max called to her, “Dakota, what if we need your help?”

Twenty feet away, she stopped, turned slightly, and hissed, “I am not your mother, your counselor, your guardian angel, or your friend. As I said, you’ve been warned. Your next encounter with Samael will be up to you. There will be no assistance from the Cabinet or the Council – neither will work against the universe.”

We were both surprised by her demeanor. The only other time we had met her she had been very understanding of our situation and helped Max to rid himself of Samael. She was a nurse who took care of me while I was comatose. She was married to Randy, Max’s boss. Her outburst was nothing short of shocking.

“
I guess we know when we aren’t wanted,” I mumbled. I shoved my hands in my pocket and found the business card of Officer Dennis Thornton.

I flipped it from side to side inside my pocket, not knowing how to feel. I knew we needed to help if we could, but both Renny and Dakota wanted us gone. It didn’t make any sense. I was supposed to be the “Odd-One,” at least that’s what I’d been told. I was able to bend destinies; I have to think with this turn of events that I could be of some value.

Max interrupted my thoughts, “Let’s get a bite to eat and figure out our next move.”

*****

We found a little café. The only open table was a corner booth. As we took our seats, I noticed Officer Thornton in the adjoining booth. Max whispered, “This is a coincidence.”