Awakening (Book One of The Geis) (4 page)

Aunt Avril drove past the police station and continued down the highway out of town. When we drove through the Narrows and into the town of Thayne, I realized that she wouldn’t be checking me back into school. Mom was going to be ticked.

Aunt Avril didn’t say anything on the way, and I thought it best not to interrupt her thoughts, contenting myself with looking out the window.

Salt River carved its way through the canyon, where the trees turned patches of the summer greenery yellow and red. I’d lived in Star Valley for only a few months, but it didn’t take me long to fall in love with a valley so large that it took forty-five minutes to drive from one scenic end to the other, yet small enough that people still waved to each other at the stoplight-free intersections.

The Corvette cut the corners of the canyon with grace. I relaxed into the leather seat that hugged every contour of my body. When we left the pavement behind, I could barely feel the usual bounce and jolt of a washboard-graveled road. Even so, Aunt Avril slowed her car down to a crawl as we climbed the mountain, cringing every time a rock hit the undercarriage.

From behind a grove of trees emerged a house that could only be described as a castle. Cone-roofed turrets stood sentinel at each corner of the gray-bricked manor. The walls were even scalloped to represent a medieval castle, and I spotted a few stained-glass windows peeking at us from lofty heights.

“Wow,” I said. “I had no idea there was a castle in Star Valley.”

Emergency vehicles were parked with their front ends to the castle door, like spokes on a wheel. Aunt Avril parked directly behind three of them. She bent her head to lift the heavy necklaces from around her neck, motioning for me to put them on. Opening the glove box, she pulled out a metal dagger. Clear crystals the size of dimes studded the length of the blade. It was an odd weapon, and I wondered what in the world Aunt Avril needed it for. She hurried to put it in her purse. “Stay here, dear.”

I leaned over her seat as she got out. “Does this have to do with the case you’re working on?”

“I’m counting on it.” She squared her shoulders and strode up to where the door stood open like a gaping hole. I expected her to walk in and take charge, but she hesitated at the doorway. Instead, she reached her arms out and stroked the air with her hands, as if she could coax the truth out of it. Backing down the stairs, she swept the yard in an erratic formation, following an unseen path. When she reached the door again, she dropped her hands and looked my way, winking at me before going inside. The darkness swallowed her, and I shivered.

I fiddled with the necklaces she had burdened me with. Four or five loops of dissimilar chains were the backdrop for dozens of trinkets. Some of them I remembered from when I was a small child and she told me of distant lands and foreign places. But others were new, probably acquired in the last few years that Aunt Avril had been abroad and too busy to visit.

A twisted knot of leather that surrounded a gleaming red gemstone caught my eye. The stone looked like the one in Aunt Avril’s snake ring. The colors swirled in a pattern that looked like tendrils of colored smoke.

With my finger, I followed the path of the winding leather. It circled back on itself until my finger met back at the beginning. The Celtic knot reminded me of the elaborate patterns on the Irish dancers’ dresses. Anticipation fluttered like a bird in my stomach. This time the excited feeling mingled with an uneasiness that pulled the blood from my fingers and toes. I rubbed my hands to improve their circulation, clanging the necklaces together.

I waited in the car, twisting the loose ends of the leather knotwork around my fingers. After more than twenty minutes went by, I rationalized that Aunt Avril didn’t expect me to wait this long.

I got out of the car and followed a cobblestone path to an overhang where waterfalls flanked either side of the door, each ending in a pool teeming with koi. The formidable wooden door loomed above me, reinforced with iron scrollwork that continued onto the rock and provided a lattice for the vines of ivy that flourished along the wall. Above my head a stained glass window arched over the door, the colored glass puzzled together to form a mountain landscape that mirrored the view of the valley behind me. Whoever lived here had money—lots of it.

I knocked on the door and it shifted open.

“Puzzling to be sure, and a tragedy,” Aunt Avril’s voice came from my left, sounding smooth and fake. I wondered what she saw. I turned to the sound of her voice and found her in a large—and far from medieval—kitchen. A stone hearth arched over a range and grill next to antique mahogany cabinets that rose higher than a person could comfortably reach. Two marble-topped islands stretched the length of the kitchen, each held up by columns that completed the mash-up of primitive castle and modern convenience.

“I’m not sure why you came out this way at all, ma’am.” A policeman stood in the kitchen. He had a dark-tanned complexion and his black hair was shaved close to his head. His tan uniform was tucked into green pants that hid most of his scuffed black boots from view. “Tell your superiors that we can handle this.”

“It’s so kind of you to indulge an old lady’s fancy. I’ll be sure to let them know.” Aunt Avril stepped around the policeman and into the adjoining living room where a white-haired woman sat on the couch. Her eyes looked red from crying, but otherwise she looked put-together, from her cream colored, tailored pantsuit to the regal way she held herself.

The officer rounded the counter and came toward me. I pressed myself against the wall and tried to look as if I belonged. It didn’t work.

“Who’s this?”

Aunt Avril whipped around. When she saw me, she sighed, motioning for me to sit next to her on the couch across from the mourning woman. “This is my niece, Officer Bassett. McKayla, come on over here.”

Officer Bassett shook his head and left the room, muttering something that sounded suspiciously like, “Crazy old bat.”

I took my shoes off before stepping on the beige carpet, and sat down next to Aunt Avril. When I looked up at the woman whose house we were in, I couldn’t help but stare. Up close, she was much younger than I had thought. Her flawless skin and exotic eyes were striking. But what really caught my attention was her hair. It curved in waves down her back and it was white—not dye-it-super-blonde white, but more like a whiter-than-a-lily white. She glanced my direction before turning her attention back to Aunt Avril. A surge of annoyance made me catch my breath and I clenched my jaw, wishing I’d stayed in the car. Then the sensation dissipated and I settled back against the cushions.

Aunt Avril asked the woman questions. “Did you hear anything out of the ordinary last night?”

“No, I went to bed before Jonathan, and I didn’t wake until morning,” said the white-haired woman. She reached for a tissue, dabbed her nose, and then added the tissue to the growing pile on the coffee table. “I don’t understand how this could happen. Jonathan was in great shape. He ran every morning.”

“We don’t know what caused his death yet, Mrs. Saddlebury, but anything that you can tell me will be helpful.”

I fiddled with the woven knot again, circling the gemstone with my thumb as I studied a chandelier that hung from the cavernous ceiling.

“The police said he might have had a stroke or heart attack in his sleep.” Mrs. Saddlebury struggled to stem back her emotions.

“Were there any signs of a struggle? Did he miss any of his other medications? Is there anyone who would have wished to see him dead?” Mrs. Saddlebury shook her head after each question, but when Aunt Avril mentioned death, a fresh flow of tears began. She reached for another tissue, only to find that the box was empty. Aunt Avril rummaged in her purse for another tissue.

Mrs. Saddlebury stiffened. I followed her gaze to see Aunt Avril’s dagger, half hidden in her purse.

I couldn’t believe that Aunt Avril brought the weapon inside. As I looked at the knife’s notched edges, I both feared and hated the object. My breath hitched in my throat and my heart raced as if I had been running for my life. Wave after wave of rage flushed my face with heat. Angry tears spilled over my cheeks. Nausea swept over me, and I clutched my stomach.

“Are you all right, dear?” Aunt Avril asked. Mrs. Saddlebury knelt next to me near the couch, her face full of concern. I struggled to breathe, wishing that she would move away from me. She leaned over to look at the dagger, and Aunt Avril closed her purse with a snap. I focused on Aunt Avril’s face, and the sickly feeling subsided.

“I’m fine,” I said, wiping perspiration from my forehead. “Really, I just felt queasy.” I was still upset, but the intense anger had simmered down to a low boil. I stared up at the chandelier, trying to clear my head and wondering what in the world had brought on this sudden surge of emotion that was ten times worse than PMS.

“I’d better get her home.” Aunt Avril steered me to the door. “If anything comes up, you’ll let me know?”

“Of course.” Mrs. Saddlebury followed us onto the porch. I felt her watching us as we got into the car.

As soon as I sat down, my head throbbed. I was so mad—so, so, mad. Air swirled inside the car as Aunt Avril climbed in, making the hair of my arms stand on end.

“What were you thinking, bringing that weapon into her house?” I picked up her purse, and pulled the snap open with a pop. There lay the dagger, menacing and deadly. Aunt Avril snatched the purse away before I could pick it up.

“Look at me,” she said.

“The poor lady’s husband just died, for crying out loud!”

“Look at me!” Aunt Avril said it softly, reaching for my hand. I took it and lifted my head to meet her gaze.

Energy drained from me like sand through a sieve. I shivered as chills went down my arms. “Do you feel better?”

I took a deep breath and nodded. I did feel better.

“Now look at Mrs. Saddlebury.”

She stood on the porch, and when I caught her eye she waved, her face a picture of loss. I waved back. Intense hatred filled me, and I squeezed my eyes shut, wanting to hide from the emotion that made my stomach churn like a boiling pot of soup.

Aunt Avril reached for the necklaces that still hung around my neck, and I found that I had been clutching the leather knot in my hand the entire time. I didn’t want to let it go, but I handed it over with the necklace. “What’s wrong with me?”

“Nothing’s wrong with you, child. It’s fine, just fine.” Aunt Avril released the Celtic knot from the chain. She took my hand in hers and folded my fingers around the knot. “What did you feel?”

I struggled to express the massive mood swing I experienced. “You were visiting with Mrs. Saddlebury, and all of a sudden anger rushed through my body.” Realization clarified my thoughts. “I was angry at you.”

Aunt Avril slipped the necklaces back over her head. “Angry at me? That is interesting. It appears Mrs. Saddlebury is not quite what she would seem.” She pulled the dagger out of her purse and opened her door.

“What’s going on?” My hands shook and adrenaline pumped through me. Aunt Avril wasn’t making sense.

“You weren’t feeling your own emotions, McKayla. You were feeling the emotions of that woman in the house.” Before I could respond, Aunt Avril jumped out of the car, running back to the castle. She paused on the now-empty porch where Mrs. Saddlebury had watched us, then walked in the open door.

I clutched at my door handle with a shaking hand, unsure of what to do. I wanted to make sure Aunt Avril was safe, but every nerve ending in my body screamed for me to get away. I was certain the car keys were in Aunt Avril’s purse. A heavy feeling settled in my stomach. I couldn’t leave Aunt Avril here.

Seconds later, Aunt Avril appeared in the overly-tall doorway, her phone to her ear. Her free arm punctuated her conversation as she paced on the expansive porch. I forced myself to relax my clenched jaw muscles.

“What are you doing?” My voice came out in a screech when Aunt Avril finally climbed back into the car.

“I needed to check on something.” Aunt Avril put her hand on my arm, as if noticing for the first time that I was freaked out about her going back into the house of someone who hated her so much. She patted my arm, and then fished her keys out of her purse. “Mrs. Saddlebury is gone.”

I took a shaky breath. Gone? I hadn’t seen anyone leave through the front door. “Where would she go?”

“She told the police that she needed to take a walk to clear her head, but something tells me she won’t be back for a while. That’s enough investigating for today. Let’s go get some lunch.” She pointed the car down the canyon, glancing at me as she drove. “Are you still angry at me?’

I searched my feelings. I was confused and upset, but not angry. I looked at Aunt Avril’s poufy hair that was even wilder from her run through the castle. The intense loathing was gone. I shook my head.

Trees rushed past the window and I tried to wrap my mind around what she had told me. “I experienced those feelings because that’s what Mrs. Saddlebury felt?” Exhaustion overwhelmed me and I blinked back tears.

Aunt Avril took her eyes off the road to look at me. She bit her lip and focused ahead. “Ever since you were a little girl, I wondered if you might have a gift. I used to watch you dance, and wondered at the emotion you could evoke.”

“Hang on, I don’t have any psychic power or anything.”

Aunt Avril’s laughter filled the car like the jangle of a wind chime. “Psychic power, or whatever you want to call it. It’s not like that though, really.”

“No offense, Aunt Avril, but I don’t really believe in stuff like that.”

She sighed. “I know. Your mother wants you to be normal. She wants it so badly that she blocks out what is right in front of her.”

The emotions I’d felt in Mrs. Saddlebury’s presence had been overwhelming, and real. Was it possible that I could have some heightened sense of empathy, some ability to sense others’ feelings in the same way that Aunt Avril could
see
what happened at the scene of a crime? I thought of her coaxing impressions from the air.

“What did you find when you were outside the house?”