In Love by Christmas: A Paranormal Romance (19 page)

23

One Thing After An
other

“
H
annah? Will?” Leroy
marched down the passageway to Will’s room. He was lying on the bed, pale and obviously in pain. Hannah seemed to have used every towel in the place to stop the bleeding. White terry cloth rags, splotched with red,
lots
of red, were tossed all over.

Hannah sat by Will’s side, holding his hand. “Oh, Leroy. Can you heal him? The wound is so bad.”

“I’ll take care of him,” Leroy said. “You go out and see what’s wrong with your commandos. They’re in that hallway. I think they got too close to the demons. Watch yourself. You may have to kill them.”

Will’s mouth gaped a bit. He panted in fear and pain. Leroy could see the bullet’s path, a tunnel in Will’s neck emerging out the back. Bone splinters from his collarbone gleamed white. He could see an artery throbbing deep inside the wound. The demons had almost killed him.

“I can handle this, Will. I’ve been healin’ since I was four.” Leroy moved closer to the wounded billionaire, humming. Will’s eyes drooped and then closed. “Sleep, Will. OK, let’s see what I can do.”

Wasn’t any harder than curing a foundering horse—though that was pretty hard. Leroy waved his hands over the bullet hole, humming and finally singing. He touched the raw flesh, and eventually inserted his finger into the hole.

“Come now, bones and flesh, heal up. This man’s givin’ a big speech tomorrow, he’s got to be tip top.”

The bone chips pulled together, making Will’s collarbone twice as hard as it had been. The open hole in his neck filled with new tissue. Leroy withdrew his finger as flesh filled the hole. He ran his hand along Will’s neck and shoulder. The outer damage became a round scar. Another swipe with his hand and no scar existed. He took what pain remained away, and then shook out his hands.

“Will, wake up, you’re fine. Oh, wait a minute, I forgot all the blood you lost.” He passed his hands over Will’s body. “OK, that should be enough. You can wake up now. You’re healed.”

When Will opened his eyes, Leroy saw he wasn’t healed. Physically, he was all right, but he was a jellyfish inside. His real healing hadn’t begun.

“Will, can you get up and take a shower?” He’d heard the muffled Pops! of silenced gunshots in the hall. He couldn’t leave Hannah to face four semi-demons. “Put some clothes on. I’ll be right back and we’ll talk.”

Leroy slunk down the hallway and looked out the peephole in the front door. Hannah had her back to the door and was firing at her erstwhile soldiers. They were more than semi-demons. Leroy could see their fangs and claws. They didn’t have coats of black scales, but those would be next.

“Hannah, I’m coming out,” he said.

Two of the four lay dead in the hallway. The other two ranged around Hannah. They had weapons, but seemed intent on tearing her apart. They snarled and leapt back when they saw him.

“Who’s he?” they snapped at Hannah.

“I’m jus’ nobody. I work here. Why are you doin’ what your doin’? Hannah’s your boss.”

“Not anymore. Diego is our boss.” The erstwhile commando’s canine teeth were growing longer and longer, slobber running down his chin.

“Well, I’m sorry to say, but Diego and his friends have had a change of heart. They’re good now and never will do anyone harm. Does that sound like a good idea to you?”

It didn’t. They leapt at Hannah and him. She managed to hit pay dirt with a couple of rounds, but it wasn’t enough.

“I’m sorry to have to do this.” Leroy pointed the palms of his hands at the two of them. White flames shot out, not just killing them, but burning them to cinders instantly. Leroy didn’t stop there; he did the same thing to the bodies on the floor.

“You can’t let them go without burning them up; they’ll become demons quicker than that.” He snapped his fingers. “Sorry to leave you to clean up this mess, Hannah. We don’t want anyone to see this. I’ve got to get back to Will.”

Hannah stared at her former colleagues. “They look like piles of kitty litter. What should I do with them?”

“I’d find the janitor’s closet and get a broom and dustpan. Put them in a garbage can and dump them down the chute.”

“What if someone comes?”

“I can take care of that.” He inhaled and said in his power voice. “People, you will not come home for three hours. You are having a wonderful time. If you must come home, you will see nothing in the hall. Nothing and no one. You will sleep until noon tomorrow. You will feel wonderful.

“That should do it.” Leroy went back to Will.

Will lay propped up in bed, his hands clutching the quilt covering his body. He wore navy blue silk pajamas. Deep lines ran from his nose to his mouth. His skin was grey and his eyes darted from side to side. Leroy had never seen him so afraid.

“What’s the matter, Will?” Leroy sat next to him on a fine upholstered chair.

“It’s over, Leroy. I can’t do it anymore. I told you that my enemies are going to take Numenon from me.

“I can’t hold out much longer. By February, the greatest corporation in history will be a rape and pillage machine run by demons. And I’m the only one who will know it. They’ll blame everything that’s ever gone wrong on me …

“I may have been an asshole in lots of ways, Leroy, but I got some of it right. My visions showed me the way to go with Numenon.” Will looked at him, face haggard. “I’m lying, here,
shot
. I can’t speak at that conference.

“Next year, Frank Sauvage or Ric Chao will be here in my place. My shoulder hurts like shit, but it doesn’t hurt as much as knowing they won. That
hurts
.” He ran his hand through his hair, trying to wipe something out. Leroy had seen him do that before.

“This is my last chance to make an impact on the world at the top level. I have so much to say. We need to clean up our acts,
especially
at the top.
We’re
the ones who own the world’s assets—and squander them. Or hoard them.” He paused a while, gasping. Will grabbed Leroy’s forearm.

“I don’t know if I can do it. Did you hear about the Meeting? What I did?”

“You ran out into the desert in your bare feet, screaming at Donatore? Carl told me.”

“He told you?”

“Yeah. He said it was stupid, but amazing and you were a warrior of warriors.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. All my People know about it. You’re a hero: what you did was like one of our war chiefs standing up to the white man in the old days. He knew he wouldn’t win and would be killed, but he did it anyway.”

Will cracked a little smile. “Thanks for telling me that. Yeah, it was stupid, but I had to do it.” He held on to Leroy’s arm. “I’m scared, Leroy. I don’t remember being scared then. I ran out of the cave because I couldn’t let him kill any more people, or hurt them. I had to stop it.

“But he hurt me, Leroy. Your Grandfather healed me and I went on. But I’m hurt. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.” Shiny wet lines tracked down his cheeks.

“If it weren’t for your grandfather, I’d be dead. And if it weren’t for
you …
” Will wept, the dry sobs of an old man. “I’m so glad you’re here. I don’t know how to repay you.”

Leroy got it. Demons’ claws had raked Will’s soul. His grandfather had healed the gashes for then, but the gouges had festered.
That
was why Will had been so crazy about Cass and everything else. He was tainted by a demon’s curse and unable to fight it.

If a grizzly had come along and bashed him upside his skull, Leroy couldn’t have been more surprised. Will was damned by the work of demons. Struggling to do right. He was grateful to Leroy and his grandfather. And a lost, scared old man. Power surged through the healer, up from his boots to the top of his skull.

“Let me work on you inside. What the Great One showed you in that vision was the truth. There’s not a thing a demon or anyone else can do against the truth. Tomorrow, you’re going to tell the truth as hard as you can. You
are
able to go to that meeting.” Will’s eyelids fluttered.

“Go ahead and sleep, Will. Take long breaths. Let all this fade away.” Leroy did his work in silence while Will slept. He smiled when he was done. The Great One wanted Will to succeed.

“You’re going to knock ‘em dead tomorrow. I’ll be right next to you, watchin’ your back. You’ll be safe every moment, from now until then. Now go to sleep and stay asleep until it’s time to wake up.”

Leroy got up to leave, surprising himself by kissing Will’s forehead.

Before going to his room, Leroy picked up all the bloody towels and threw them in the bathtub. He torched them with a white-hot flame from his palm. Didn’t even smoke.

24

Trying to Sleep

L
eroy couldn’t sleep;
his body shuddered. Everything that happened that crazy day swam around his head. In his heart and body. How did he do that stuff? Put demons to sleep and make them good? Kill men who were becoming demons easily and with no remorse.

How would he help Will tomorrow? Did Will really believe that someone with three months of language lessons could tell him when an interpreter was misinterpreting what he said? No, he didn’t and never had. Will wanted Leroy’s presence. He wanted Leroy’s personal support, but he was beset by demons and couldn’t say what he needed. And he’d never been good at asking for help.

The healing that had just come through him gave Leroy that understanding. All he had to do was what he could. The chants of his People reverberated in his brain. Other chants, in Latin, the chants of the people who worshiped the cross with the nailed Jesus, wove in and out. Kathryn Duane was with him, Mother Whoever-she-was, wanting him to help her flawed husband get straight with the universe

He clutched his eagle feathers, sat up in his bed and sang of love to the Great One. “Oh, please Great Mystery, stay with me tomorrow. Keep Will safe. He’s got some important things to say and he’s shook up. Stay with me and keep us safe. And Hannah. An’ Cass.”

What he wanted more than anything was his grandpa. No one had seen him since the Meeting; everyone said that he had died. Leroy thought that was true; he had felt death all around him when they said goodbye.

Holding the feathers in the air before him, Leroy prayed, “Oh, Grandfather, if you could just come to me. I need you so much. I know you never thought much of me when you were alive. I know you thought I was dumb and everything, but I loved you and followed your teachings as well as I could. Oh, please Grandfather, come to me.”

Quick as that, his grandfather appeared over his bed, a little old Indian man with white braids, feet dangling from the chaps covering his legs, golden clouds of bliss surrounding him. The only difference from the last time they met was that Leroy could see through him.

“Why did you think I didn’t think much of you?” Grandfather asked.

“Because as hard as I tried, I messed up everything. I couldn’t remember what you taught. I missed half the Meetings, even though I wanted to be there real bad.”

Grandfather floated down so he was standing on Leroy’s bed. Then he was in it, slipped between the sheets.

“Ah,” the shaman said, wiggling to get comfortable. “I have never had such a bed. I should travel with rich people more often.” He seemed oblivious to Leroy’s distress, until he turned his million-watt, strobe-light eyes on him.

“Leroy, I have always known you would lead the lineage when I died. I had no doubt.”

“But why did you look at me like I was a joke? Why did the People laugh at me, even your shaman friends?”

“You do funny things. What you said, and other things. You didn’t follow my directions. You couldn’t leave the scorpions and rattlesnakes alone, for instance.

“But they liked me …”

“I know that, but how many of the other young warriors were stung or bitten because they copied you?

“Leroy, you have always had the greatest potential of all my students. From the very beginning, I knew you would be the greatest shaman and continue my line.”

“What about Wesley? Everyone said Wesley was better than me. He was the next leader.”

“Wesley is Wesley. I knew his darkness could one day claim him. I knew he was flawed. You are not. You are perfect inside, Leroy, a perfect warrior. My successor.”

Leroy felt like a tornado had picked him up and slammed him in the river head first. “You didn’t tell
me
anything like that. You looked at me like this,” Leroy pulled his brows together and scowled. “You never said I was perfect and would be your successor. It was all Wesley. Wesley. From
everyone.

“You sent
me
back to my father and the ranch. I thought you hated me and I’d failed.”

“I sent you to your father so that you two could make peace. That needed to happen. You needed to leave the reservation to become what you are. You needed to know more of the world than I could teach you. Your father’s ranch was the best I could think of. I asked you to leave to promote you, not punish you.”

Leroy sat, bewildered past any hope of comprehension. “You sent me back to my daddy’s ranch to
promote
me?”

“Yes. But you could never become the person you were meant to be on the ranch, either, talking to cows. You needed schooling and finishing in the ways of the world. You needed Will Duane to take over and give what only he could.

“You’re doing
so well
, Leroy. Our Ancestors look down on you from heaven and cheer. You’re learning the white-man’s languages. The proper use of knives and forks. How to play golf, which is almost impossible.”

The old man sighed and touched Leroy’s shoulder. “I won’t say that I won’t have other successors one day, Leroy. But you are the first among them, and the one I always knew would follow me.”

“You’ll have other shamans leading our lineage
in addition
to me?”

“Not
I’ll,
Leroy. The Great One will. These are complicated times. Great-grandfather had a handful of disciples as his flock. Times were easier; just one successor was needed. Great-grandfather picked me to lead the lineage when he died. I have had many good students and disciples—hundreds that were truly fine.

“Let’s face it—the world is a mess. It’s not enough for our People to stay in the desert and teach each other. We have to—
reach new markets—
if we are to keep the world going. So, I have you as my first successor. I’m telling you this so that you aren’t surprised when you meet one of the others. But there aren’t any now.”

“That’s nice. Thanks for tellin’ me, like tellin’ me all the other. I grew up thinkin’ I was a freak, when I was just a gigantic African-Native-American dyslexic person who could drum.”

“I should talk more, Leroy. I don’t explain well enough.”

“I’ll say. ‘Use your words’ is something they teach kindergarteners where I’ve been. Maybe you should try it.”

“Will Duane is healing you, my grandson. You are learning to speak your mind. You need to ask for what you need more.”

“I need to sleep and I need help tomorrow.”

Grandfather didn’t leave him that night. After healing his feelings of inferiority, the shaman led him into his Power. The glory that went with it filled the room.

“Sleep, my Leroy. I will be with you in the big powwow tomorrow. You will be safe, and Will and Hannah will be safe. Will will say what he needs to. Now, sleep, my grandson and my darling.”

The shaman was amazed that Leroy hadn’t known that he was his successor all along. “Use your words.” What an amazing concept.