The Wicked and the Wondrous (13 page)

Her comments effectively turned him into a boy again. Only Inez could manage to do that. “I feel a little taller today, Inez.” He winked at Kate.

“Are you two coming to the pageant practice?” Inez asked. “I organized another one after the big fiasco the other night. No one blames Abbey, Kate. It certainly wasn’t her fault that rat Bruce Harper is having an affair with little miss hot pants Sylvia Fredrickson.”

“Abbey felt terrible, Inez,” Kate said. “I’m sure it must have caused problems.”

“Well, Bruce’s wife left him. You know she’s due to give birth any day now. They all dropped out of the production, and I had to find replacements.” Inez glared at Matt. “Danny was in a fine snit saying he wasn’t certain he could work with
amateur
actors. I told him he was an amateur actor.”

“Inez,” Kate protested. “You probably broke his heart.”

For a moment Inez pursed her lips, looking repentant. “Well, he deserves it. I’ve got enough trouble without that boy complaining about his part. The three wise men are nervous, and I’m afraid they’re fixing to drop out. I don’t want to cancel the pageant. It’s been put on every year since this town was founded.”

“Danny won’t drop out. He likes to herd those sheep around,” Matt said.

Inez scowled. “He likes to chase them toward the kids and get a huge reaction.”

“That is the truth.” Matt grinned at her, but his eyes were on the wisps of gray-white fog slipping into town. He moved away from the women toward the plate-glass window, where he studied the fog. The enemy. It was strange to think of the fog, a nearly everyday occurrence on the coast, as the enemy.

The dark tendrils stretched toward houses, reached with long, spiny arms and bony fingers. The image was so strong Matt took a step closer to the window, narrowing his eyes to peer into the fog. “Katie, come here for a minute,” he said softly, and held out his hand without taking his eyes from the fog. Something was moving inside of it.

Kate immediately put her hand into his and stepped up beside him. “What is it?”

“Look into the fog and tell me what you see.”

Kate studied the rapidly moving vapor. It was darkening and spinning, almost boiling with turbulence. She shivered as long streaks stretched across the highway and began to surround the residences. It made her think of a predator hunting something, sniffing for the right scent. She thought something moved in the middle of the thick fogbank, something shaped vaguely like a tall man in a long, flowing coat and an old hat. She glimpsed a form, then it disappeared in the seething mass, only to reappear moments later, fading into the edges of the whirling mists. It was tall with bare white bones, pitiless eyes, and a wide, gaping mouth. She stepped back, gasping. The skeleton had more than taken shape. This time the entire chest was intact, and small pieces of flesh hung on the body, making it more grotesque than ever.

Kate put a hand protectively to her throat to stifle the scream welling up as she backed completely away from the window. She realized the store was eerily silent. Inez and the patrons stared out the window fearfully.

“It’s taking shape, isn’t it?” Matt asked.

Jonas and Jackson stalked into the store, Jonas’s expression grim. “Kate, get out there and get rid of this before we start having fatalities,” Jonas snapped without preamble, ignoring everyone else. “No one can see to drive the highway. I issued a warning on the radio, but we’re going to have people not only driving over cliffs but also walking over them. Unfortunately, not everyone listens to the radio.”

“Go to hell, Jonas.” Matt was furious.
Furious.
At the thing in the fog. At Jonas, and at his own inability to stop the entity. “You’re not sending Kate out there to battle that damned thing alone again. She’s scared and tired, and I’ll be damned if you bully her into thinking she’s responsible for taking this thing on by herself. You want someone to fight it, be my guest.”

“Dammit, Matt, don’t start with me. You know I would if I had a chance in hell, but I don’t. This is the Drakes’ territory, not mine,” Jonas bristled.

Kate put a restraining hand on both men’s arms. “The last thing we need is to fight among ourselves. Jonas, I can’t manage it alone. I really can’t. I need Hannah.” She leaned her head against Matt’s chest. “I don’t bring the wind, Hannah does. She’s exhausted with fighting this thing. My sisters have been working with me the entire time. Without Hannah, we can’t do anything.”

Matt glanced down at her face, saw the lines of weariness there, the look of far too much energy expended, and for the first time, uncertainty. He wrapped his arms more tightly around her, and addressed Jonas. “How bad is it out there? Can they pass on this one and get some rest?”

“I’m getting damned sick of this secrecy where Hannah’s concerned,” Jonas said, obviously trying to get his temper under control. He felt every bit as impotent against the entity as Matt did, and it was clearly wearing on him. “We may have a running battle going; but if she’s ill, it matters to me, Kate. You’ve been my family for as long as I can remember.”

Kate felt Matt stirring, a fine tremor of anger rippling through his body at the tone Jonas used with her. She rubbed her head against his chest. “I know that, Jonas. Hannah is aware you’re angry too. You know we all have a difficult time after we use our gifts. Hannah has to expend a tremendous amount of energy controlling something as capricious as the wind. Using our gifts is very draining. And whatever is in the fog has been growing in strength and resisting us, so we’re having to expend more effort to contain it.”

“Can you get rid of it, Kate?” Inez asked.

Everyone in the store seemed to hold their breath, waiting for her answer. Kate could feel the hope. The fear. All eyes were on her. “I honestly don’t know.” But she had to try. She could already hear the feminine voices whispering in the soft breeze heading inland from the sea. She felt her sisters calling to her to join with them. Hannah was already on the battlement, drooping with weariness, but facing the fog, waiting for Kate. Sarah and Abbey stood with her, and Joley had arrived. She’d been traveling for two days, yet she stood shoulder to shoulder with her sisters, waiting for Kate.

Kate closed her eyes and drew in a deep breath in an effort to summon her strength. Her courage. A paralyzing fear was beginning to grip her, one she recognized and was familiar with. Like Hannah, she suffered from severe panic attacks. Unlike Hannah, she was not a public figure. As a writer, her name might be known, but not her face. She could blend into the background easily, yet now everyone was watching. Waiting. Expecting Kate to work some kind of magic when she didn’t even know what she was dealing with.

Matt felt the fine tremors that ran through Kate’s body and turned her away from everyone in the store, his larger body shielding her. “You don’t have to do this, Katie.” He whispered the words, his forehead pressed against hers.

“Yes, I do,” she whispered back.

Jonas instinctively stepped in front of her to protect her from prying eyes. Jackson spoke. His voice was utterly low, so soft one felt they had to strain to hear his words, yet his voice carried complete authority. “Inez, move everyone to the center of the store away from the windows, and let’s give Kate some room to work. We have no idea what’s going to happen, and we don’t want to take chances with injuries.”

Kate was grateful to the three men. She took another breath and pulled away from Matt, deliberately yanking open the door and slipping outside before her courage failed her. At once she felt the malevolence, a bitter, twisted emotion beating at her. The dark fog wrapped around her body, and twice she actually felt the brush of something alive sliding over her skin. She pressed her teeth together to keep them from chattering. Strength was already flowing into her—her sisters, reaching out from a distance, calling to her with encouraging words.

Matt joined her outside, slipping behind her, circling her waist with his arms, drawing her back against his hard, comforting body so that she had an anchor. Jonas took up a position on her right side, and Jackson was at her left. Three big men, all seasoned warriors, all ready to defend her with their lives. It was impossible not to find the courage and the strength she needed when it was pouring into her from every direction.

Kate faced the dark, boiling fog, lifting her arms to signal to Hannah, to signal to bring in the wind. She began to speak softly, calmly, using the gift of her soothing voice in an attempt to bring peace to the swelling malevolence in the fog. She spoke of peace, of love, of redemption and forgiveness. Gathering every vestige of courage she possessed, Kate made no attempt to drive it away. Rather she summoned it to her, trying to find a way to pierce the veil between reality and the shadow world where she could see into the soul of what was left behind and, hopefully, find a way to heal the broken spirit.

The fog spun and roiled in a terrible frenzy, a reaction to the sound of her voice. Her sisters protested for a moment, frightened by what she was trying, but joining with her when they recognized her determination. Jonas made a small sound of dissent and moved closer to her, ready to jerk her back into reality.

Moans assaulted her ears. The shadow world was vague and gray, a bleak hazy place where nothing was what it seemed. She chanted softly, her voice spreading through the world with little effort, stilling the moans and alerting whatever lived there to her presence. Kate felt the impact when the entity realized she’d once again joined him in his world. She could feel his blazing rage, the fierce anger, and the intensity of his guilt and sorrow. The thing turned toward her, a tall skeleton of a man, blurred so that he was nearly indistinct in the gray vapors surrounding him. He wore a long coat and shapeless hat, and he shook his head and pressed his bony hands over his ears to stop the enchantment of her voice. Flesh sagged from the bones, a loose fit in some places, stretched tight in others.

Kate whispered softly to him, calling, beckoning, trying to coax him to reveal the pain he suffered, the torment of his existence. She used her voice shamelessly, cajoling him to find peace. The shadowy figure took a few steps toward her. Kate held out her hand to him, a gesture of camaraderie.
There is peace. Let yourself feel it surround you.

The being took another cautious step toward her. Her heart pounded. Her mouth was dry, but she kept whispering. Speaking to him. Promising him rest. He was only a few feet from her, his arm stretching out toward her hand. The bony fingers were close. Inches away from her flesh. She remembered the feel of the finger bones closing around her throat, but she stood her ground and kept enticing him.

Something slithered around his boots. Snakelike vines wrapped around bony ankles. Out of the barren rocks bounded a huge creature with matted fur and yellow eyes. In the cold of the shadow world, she could see the creature’s vaporous breath mingling with the fog. The eyes fixed on her, an intruder in their world.

The tips of her fingers touched the bony ends of the skeleton as it reached toward her. The creature howled, sending a shiver of fear down Kate’s spine. Her sisters held their collective breath. Jonas stiffened, communicating his apprehension to Matt and Jackson.

Kate continued to whisper of peace, of aid, of a place to rest. The being took more shape, the pitiless eyes swimming with tears, extending its hand as far as the snakelike vines allowed. Abruptly the skeleton threw back its head and roared, rejecting her. Rejecting the idea of redemption and forgiveness. She glimpsed a raging hatred of self, of everything symbolizing Christmas, of peace itself. There can be no peace. She caught that as the being began to whirl around, furious, using the vortex of its wild spinning to hurl objects at her. The moans rose to shrieks. The huge creature bounded toward Kate, breathing as loudly as any bull. Kate made one last grab for the hand of the skeleton, but it had turned on her completely, rushing at her along with the beast.

“Get her out of there!” Jonas shouted, catching the collective fear that ran through the Drake family. He gripped Kate’s arm hard, shaking her. “Matt, pull her back to us!”

“Kate,” her sisters cried out, “leave him, leave him there.”

“Hannah!” Jonas cried the name desperately. “The wind, Hannah, bring in the wind.”

Kate stared at the terrible figure coming straight at her, fury in its every line. The eyes glowed red through the dark fog; the face was made of bones, not flesh. The mouth gaped open in a silent scream. She was trapped there in the world of shadows, real, yet not, unable to find her way back. The worst of it was, she caught sight of a second insubstantial figure coming at her from the left.

“Kate.” Matt whispered her name, lifted her into his arms. Her body was an empty shell, her mind caught somewhere else.

“Kate, darling, go with the other one, he’ll lead you out.” Elle’s soft voice pushed everything else away.

The dark demon was almost upon her. Kate felt a hand on her arm. She looked down and saw Jackson’s fingers circling her wrist like a vise. She didn’t have time to go voluntarily; he yanked her out of the shadows, back into the light. She heard a roar of rage, shuddered when she felt bones brush against her skin. Matt was real and solid, and she gripped him hard, needing to feel grounded. She felt physically ill, her stomach a churning knot. She closed eyes, sliding into a dead faint.

The wind swept in from the sea, a strong tempest of retaliation. Hannah’s fear added to the strength of the storm. Rain burst down on them. The dark fog swirled and fought, not wanting to give ground. For a brief moment there was a confrontation between the entity and the Drake sisters, sticks and debris flying in the wind. The three men could hear the desperate cries of seagulls. And then it was over, the fog retreating to the sea, leaving behind silence and the rushing wind and rain. Matt stood there on the sidewalk, Kate, safe in his arms, staring in shock at the mess left behind.