Fire on the Island (23 page)

"Boss, we
already went through this," Brynna spoke up. "We understand the risks
and we're with you." The others nodded.

"I really
appreciate that, I do. But you don't
know
all of the risks. You need to
hear me out before you make that decision. This requires me to reveal some very
personal information about myself that I am not entirely comfortable with—and
you may not be either."

"Whatever
it is, we'll deal," Amy said with her typical straightforwardness.

Isla shook her
head. "You may not be able to deal, but I want to be clear that whatever
your reactions are, I understand. Some of you may not even believe me,"
she stated, worrying her bottom lip with her teeth and looking back and forth
between the three of them.

Kieran snorted
and raked a hand through his shoulder-length, black hair. "Clearly it
can't be too unbelievable, because it looks as though Cal, Jack, and Jeremiah
already know, and they're still here. Don't keep us in suspense any longer!
Spill."

Taking a death
grip on Jeremiah's hand, Isla began her story in a shaking voice. As much as
she wanted to rush through it, to get it all out and then wait for the
inevitable backdraft to consume her, she didn't. She took strength from
Jeremiah's strong presence and started from the beginning.

She told them
of the night her mother attempted to take her life and of the strange brand
that appeared on her skin. With Jeremiah's help, she explained his profession
and what led him there to the island and how he tracked down Mhairi.

She gave them
the rundown of all of the things they had learned from Mhairi about Alastore
and his
auchrim
, and the many ways he has and will try to attack them.
Brought up last and emphasized was the fact that they believed the demons had
the ability to possess people or take over their minds.

"The
threat from Alastore is very real," Isla finished, looking at each of them
in turn. "That is the reason I felt the need to tell you all of this. I
can teach you how to defend yourselves against him, mind and body, but you have
to truly understand. This is happening."

Brynna and
Kieran, who had been leaning forward during the story, sank back into the
cushions of the overstuffed couch, while Amy remained motionless. The three
friends looked back and forth among one another, temporarily stunned into
silence.

Amy's lips
twitched and Brynna's eyes twinkled when she looked over at Kieran. In a
moment, the three of them dissolved into a fit of laughter. Isla blinked, her
mouth hanging open in disbelief as she watched her friends laugh so hard that
tears rolled down their cheeks.

"Jaysus
Bosslady, you bloody well had us all goin' for a minute there," Brynna
said, clutching her ribs.

Amy hooted and
slapped Kieran on the knee. "I really think Ki was buying it the whole
time!"

Gulping in a
deep breath, Isla tried to tamp down her temper that rose viciously to the
surface. Bad things tended to happen when she lost it. A squeeze to her hand let
her know that Jeremiah was worried about her reaction as well.

She waited,
expressionless, until the cackling and ribbing had died down. When her young
employees realized that the others in the room were not joining in with the
joke, three pairs of eyes snapped to Isla's face, all with matching frowns.

"Boss?"
Brynna asked cautiously. It seemed as though seeing was believing, so Isla
decided reluctantly that she would have to demonstrate. She looked to Jeremiah,
silently asking for his support, and he nodded in return.

Isla closed her
eyes and focused her energy in the way Marduk had taught her. It had become
easy with practice, almost an immediate reaction to having the thought.
Suddenly, all of the lights and electronic devices in the house shut off, plunging
the group into darkness and silence.

"What the
f—" Kieran's exclamation drifted off as everything turned back on. The
three of them looked around warily, and Brynna rose up on her knees on the
couch to look out the window. "Is there a storm coming? Or did you forget
to pay the power bill?" she asked with a weak laugh.

Scrubbing both
hands over her face, Isla shook her head sadly. Evidently, it was going to take
much more to convince them. Reaching toward the coffee table, Isla held out her
hand, and Amy's beer slid across the table to slap into her palm.

Hearing a
chorus of shocked gasps, she thought she must be getting through to them. She
quirked an eyebrow at the three kids who were now staring at her like she was
the newest freak show attraction. "Need to see more?"

There was a
brief moment of silence until Brynna and Amy began talking excitedly all at
once.

"Can you
read my mind?"

"Do you
use spells or do you just think things and they happen?"

"Can you
see the future? Can you start fires?"

Isla held up a
hand for silence, and the questions trailed off. She quirked a half smile at
them. "That's more like it. I'll answer all of your questions, but one at
a time, okay?"

When they both
nodded, Isla began answering. "I can't read minds. At least I haven't been
able to so far, and that's just fine with me. Most of what I do comes from
harnessing and focusing energy to manipulate the environment. I think there are
some things that require spells, but I'm still new at this, so everything that
I've learned seems to come from within."

"I can't
see the future," she said, looking pointedly at Amy, who simply shrugged.
"I seem to be able to manipulate natural elements—earth, air, fire, water,
and of course energy, or atmosphere. So I'm sure I can start fires, but I stay
away from anything destructive. People think the worst of me already, I don't
need to give them any more ammunition."

Isla began to
notice that Kieran had been extremely quiet since the
demonstration
and
when she looked over at him, he was white as a sheet. His green eyes were wide
and shadowed, and he was breathing rapidly like he was halfway to
hyperventilating.

"Kieran,
you okay brother?" Jere asked, causing all eyes to turn to the young man.

"I...uh...I...,"
he stammered his nonresponse, and Atticus chose that moment to vault into
Kieran's lap causing him to jump. "Mother
fucker
!"

That earned him
a hiss as the cat was dumped unceremoniously on the floor. Pinching the bridge
of her nose, Isla glared at the cat. "Get lost Atty. Go find Smit and occupy
yourselves elsewhere." There was a silent communication between them as
the cat glared back at her before sniffing and bounding off into the bedroom.

That,
apparently, was the last straw for Kieran. He leapt off the couch, muttering to
himself, "She talks to fucking cats...and they understand her." The
muttering tapered off into incoherent stuttering as Kieran hugged himself and
paced back and forth, as if he was unsure of the easiest, and safest, way to
get away from her.

Sighing, Isla
stood up and reached for him. "Kieran—"

"No...,"
he said. "No! Don't touch me!" Isla shrank back as if she had been
struck and swallowed a sob.

"I—I'm
sorry," Kieran started, a tremor in his voice. "I just...I can't do
this." He turned, grabbed his jacket and keys, and bolted out the door
like his ass was on fire.

When Isla made
to follow him, Jeremiah caught her hand and pulled her back. "Let him
go," he said gently. "He needs some time to process. He'll be back,
or he won't. It has to be his decision. Right now, there's six of us still
here. Enough for a good search party. So we need to table this for now and get
started with the briefing, yeah?"

Forcing back
the tears that threatened to fall, Isla visibly steeled herself and nodded.
"Cal, Jack, you were part of the police search. Why don't you start us off
by telling us what you know."

When they had
all settled back around the coffee table, Callum spread out a stack of
pictures. “Swiped these off an officer,” he said with a mischievous grin. “They
had plenty, they’ll never miss ‘em.”

Passing the
pictures around, he began to list the particulars about each missing person.
“Isla, you’d be familiar with this first one,” he said, tapping a picture of a
woman, probably in her mid-forties with shoulder-length, brown hair and warm
amber eyes. “Claire Corrie, age forty-two. She’s single and lives alone, but
she has a brother and sister-in-law who live on the island as well. They got
worried and called the police when she didn’t show up for dinner on Thursday.
No last known location.”

Pausing briefly
to have a sip of his beer, he picked up another picture of two young men who
were smiling with their arms thrown around each other. “Freddie Miles and Asher
Davis, tourists from San Francisco, age thirty-two and twenty-seven respectively.
Word is they were on a honeymoon of sorts after a commitment ceremony last
month."

Jack chimed in,
filling in the details. "Asher and Freddie were last seen in the tearoom
at Kildonan Inn, where they've been staying on the island.

Callum passed
around the last picture for the group to look at. An elderly couple smiled out
at them. “Douglas and Margaret Bànach, ages sixty-eight and sixty-three. Born
and raised on the island, last seen at Thursday tea at the senior center.
Unlike the first three people to go missing this summer, there are no reports
of any of these new victims setting out to hike or camp. It’s like they just
disappeared.”

“So,
basically,” Isla began, “we have nothing to go on. No idea where they started
and definitely no idea where they’ve ended up?”

“That’s about
the whole of it, aye,” Jack said grimly.

Amy leaned
forward and pulled a hand-drawn map of the island toward her. “These
gateways…do you know where they are?”

Isla shrugged
one delicate shoulder. “No way to know for sure. The only time I’ve ever been
sure I was near one, I was led to it in a dream.”

“You saw it in
your dream?” Brynna asked.

“No, I was
dreaming I was searching for a missing child. I sleepwalked to a set of
standing stones I’ve never seen before or since. I think that was Alastore’s
plan. To use a dream to lure me to the gateway where he could pull me in. He
can’t physically force anyone to do something. He has to use energy to control
someone's mind, to make them do it on their own. Or at least, that’s what we
think. There’s no tellin’ what he’ll be able to do when he gains more power.”

“Damn,” Amy
said, and everyone nodded their agreement. “Isla, if we were to come upon a
locus
during a search, do you think that you would know?"

“I can’t be
sure,” Isla said, chewing her lip, “but I think so. The one I ended up at that
night was giving off a low-level energy buzz, kind of like walking past an
electrical plant. I could feel it prickle my skin, and I felt a strong pressure
in my head."

“Wicked.”

Rolling her
eyes at Amy, Isla turned her attention back to the maps. "I agree with
what Kieran said. We can park at Shiskine golf course in Blackwaterfoot and set
off on the walking path along the beach, below the bluffs. That way it will
seem like we’re just friends going on walkabout, instead of a rogue search
party.”

Pausing to
listen to the chorus of agreements, she continued. “Once we reach the bluffs,
we’ll climb to the game trail halfway up the hill, right at the base of the
bluffs. It’s a rough path and it will be difficult terrain, but we’ll have lots
of cover until we get to the caves.”

They talked and
planned into the evening, and Isla spent a couple of hours working with Jack,
Callum, Amy, and Brynna to teach them defenses against Alastore and his
minions. She talked them through clearing their minds and putting up mental
barriers to avoid possession.

"These are
last resort techniques, of course. Our number one goal will be avoidance.
Barring that, I will be the first line of defense. You'll only need to do these
things if he gets to you."

Taking a deep
breath, Amy rose gracefully to her feet and reached out a hand to haul Brynna
up off the couch. “First light isn't too far off, so we’d better get home.
We’ll stop by the office to get some supplies and a set of two-ways.”

Saying their
goodbyes, the girls departed, leaving the four of them alone again. Isla sighed
and flopped down on the couch, snuggling into Jeremiah’s warmth when he settled
beside her. He smelled of soap and rain, and the familiarity tugged at her
heart.

"I really
hope we find them," she said softly to no one in particular. A cold chill
had settled in the room, causing her to shiver.

Jeremiah rubbed
his hands over her arms, and then stood. "The weather's really cooled off
lately. I'm going to build a fire." Choosing the fireplace over the
cast-iron stove, Jere knelt by the pile of firewood on the hearth.
Methodically, he began stacking the logs in a pattern on the rack inside the
stone fireplace.

"Cal, can
you run outside and get me some kindling?" Jere asked the older man.

"Sure
thing, mate," Cal said, as he bounded out the door while Jack excused
himself to the washroom. When they were alone, Isla slid to the end of the
couch to drape her body over the armrest.