Last Witch Standing (Mountain Witch Saga) (6 page)

The two talked for over an hour, stopping only when Rachel
was called to dinner.

"I cannot impress upon you enough how important it is
that you not channel unshielded. Right now, you are sending up a signal to any
witch in the area that you are here. As I said before, some of them are
malevolent." Katie stood up.

"I won't," Rachel answered.

"On my next visit, I will bring you a book about the
Power. Reading it will help you understand your new world."

Rachel escorted Katie to the window. Katie waved as she
climbed over the sill, onto the roof tiles. Rachel returned the wave, closed
the window, and watched Katie until she had scaled the tree branches and
dropped out of view.

This is the culmination of many years of work.
Soon, I will have my own witch to use and can explore the Cosmos, no longer
limited by my inability to store the Power.

***

"I was worried you wouldn't show." Rachel held
the window open the next evening and Katie scurried through. “I thought you may
have been a dream.”

"Do not worry. I keep my word." Katie set a
satchel on the bed, smiled, and withdrew a book. “And I am no dream.”

Rachel hurried over. Katie pushed it to her and the girl
opened it.

“Wow. There is so much out there I don’t know. I thought I
was alone,” Rachel said.

“No. Not any longer. I will help you.”

“I really thought I was going crazy.” Rachel paused at the
section on Mountain Witches. “Oh, my goodness. That’s what you are?”

Katie smiled. “We will be good friends, together.” Katie
put her hand out.

Rachel took the sorceress’s hand.

Good. This girl feels in my debt. She is
dependent upon me for knowledge and guidance. If I move slowly and carefully, I
can maneuver her to my Pangea – by force, if necessary. This one is a keeper.

The Present

Earth

Would the disguise hold? Candice Strong walked back along
the path she had taken the night of her disappearance. This time it was midday
and she was on a mission for Queen Annalisse: to contact the man and his son in
Melville and have them wait on standby for the queen’s summons.

She fingered the magic emerald necklace Queen Annalisse had
given Candice to screen her appearance. Candice had been missing on Earth for
nearly a year; her sudden appearance would cause a tremendous stir which could
compromise her mission for the queen. Besides disguising her, the necklace
would also allow her to do minor conjuring trick – tricks that would be
necessary to convince Dan Edwards of  what, Candice was certain, he would see
as a fantastical story – his little sister, Katie, who died forty years before
was now a sorceress in another universe and wreaking havoc throughout the
Cosmos.

Karen, from the Citadel, had provided ample U.S. currency
for Candice to meet her needs. Still, it would take all the skills she had
gained over the course of her law enforcement career to conduct an operation
while living on a cash basis and without an identity.

At a variety store near the park, she purchased a digital
camera, a cream-colored bed sheet and some tacks. Back at the park, she sat on
a bench near the restrooms and waited until the ladies’ was empty and nobody
was in the area around it.

Water ran down the side of the concrete ramp leading to the
bathrooms. Either there was a leaking pipe, or somebody left the water on. Once
in, she would turn off any faucet still on in the ladies room; no point in
attracting the attention of park maintenance.

A large oak, with its gray-brown bark, bright olive-colored
leaves and unripe acorns, towered over the bench upon which Candice sat.
Midnight black crows cawed from the tree’s innumerable appendages, raising a
racket. Ambient sound from the nearby freeway created a background hum,
punctuated by the roar of powerboats as they sped along the river parallel to
the park, wakes trailing behind. The smell of engine oil and gasoline, from the
boat launching ramp behind her, mixed with the scent of grass, oak leaf and
wildflower, creating a hybrid odor Candice found unpleasant.

Hard to think, I used to see this park as a quiet, peaceful
place. My dear sisters among the Mountain Witches did not have such hideous
devices as gas engines, and the trees held singing robins, sparrows, blue jays,
and other colorful and musical birds.

Ten minutes passed without anyone entering or exiting the
restroom. Candice dashed inside, turned a corner faucet off, the culprit for
the flooding, and surveyed the inside.

Light from the front windows illuminated the far end,
which, thankfully, remained clean and dry, its log wall perfect for her purpose.
Candice unwrapped the sheet and tacked it to the wall, adjusted her hair,
programmed the camera in front of her for an automatic shot, time-delay set at
fifteen seconds and returned to the wall. The camera flashed.

Candice checked the resulting photo on the screen at the
back of the camera. Good, but she could do better, so she shot several more,
hastily pulling down the sheet when she heard voices approaching.

“Hello,” Candice said to the three teen-aged girls who
entered.

“Oh, hello,” one answered. She wore tight pants and a shirt
that exposed her navel. The other two were similarly dressed.

The others gave Candice a quick smile.

How different children are raised today
compared to my day; I would never have been allowed to leave the house dressed
this way.

After she was certain the pictures would do, Candice called
a taxi from a payphone in the park.

“Where to?” the driver, an older man of middle-eastern
descent, asked Candice as she settled into the back seat.

“Uh, the Melville Mall,” Candice stuttered.

The cabbie looked at her from his rear-view mirror, and
Candice knew he was evaluating her sobriety and ability to pay the fare. She
would have to get used to this world again and the human interaction that came
with it. Simple questions like where did she want to go? couldn’t trip her up.

Candice took out her wallet, visibly counting out several
twenty-dollar bills. The driver relaxed into his seat and they pulled onto the
freeway.

The first stop was an electronics store where she purchased
several pay-as-you-go cell phones and prepaid debit cards. The mall had a copy
place and Candice printed out half a dozen 2 x 2 inches photos. Next, she used
desktop publishing software on one of the shop’s computers to produce an
employee identification card. She fumbled with the mouse and cursed. The
mountain witches did not have computers and she was out of practice.

Using the computer’s Internet access, Candice activated the
first of her cell phones and entered the number onto her employee ID. The
company was Lysse Corporation. No such entity existed, but she needed some sort
of ID in order to function in modern society. Using her real driver’s license
and other identification were out of the question.

From the mall, she took a bus downtown and checked into a
weekly motel.

“I’m so sorry, I was carjacked and my purse stolen. If I
didn’t have this employee ID around a clasp around my neck, they would have got
it too. It is all the identification I have right now.”

The hotel clerk examined it closely, comparing the picture
to Candice. “Okay. Can you pay the week in advance, plus a security deposit of
$150.00?”

“Yes, my husband Western Unioned me enough cash.” Candice
removed six hundred dollars from her front pocket and handed it to the man.

His breath smelled faintly of brandy, causing Candice to
wonder if the hotel was too inconspicuous.

“And a newspaper please.”

The man removed a copy of the Melville Times from behind
the counter and handed it to her without looking up.

Once inside the hotel room, Candice closed all the curtains
and turned the “Do Not Disturb” sign on. She removed the emerald from around
her neck and held it in her open palm. Green light shot from its facets.
Candice concentrated. The bed turned into a Christmas tree. A moment later, the
bureau became a staircase with two children, a boy of eleven and a small girl
of four, peering out from behind the rails. The room’s lights dimmed as Candice
channeled the Power through the gemstone. The images flickered, going in and
out of focus, returning to their natural state, then back to the illusion. She
focused and the view stabilized. Her breaths came slowly; a bead of sweat
rolled down her face. Candice relaxed and the illusion disappeared. She would
need more practice. Much more. This had to be perfect.

Candice collapsed on the bed and spread the paper before
her. It would take a few days to get up to speed on current life. She had lost
eleven months of Earth time. The fate of the Cosmos hinged upon her ability to
complete the task Queen Annalisse of the Upper Mountain Witches had set her to.

The Present

Earth

Candice watched the house from inside her van. She had a
good idea of their schedule. The mother taught elementary school and was home
by 4:00. The boy returned from Melville High School between 3:40 - 3:50. The
father returned at 5:00. She needed to get the father alone. Alone and for a
long time.

She turned the key and pulled away from the curb. She had
parked the opposite way so she didn’t have to pass the house a second time.
Beside her lay several maps. She didn’t need them, but explaining your presence
to suspicious neighbors or police was much easier if you could pretend to be
lost and had pulled over to check a map.

Back at her motel room that evening, she logged onto the
Internet and went directly to Google Earth. Candice plugged in Dan’s work
address, the NOAA station outside Melville, and studied the pictures. In-person
surveillance would still be necessary, but the less she drove around, the safer
she would be from discovery. Candice’s cover would not hold long should she be
pulled over and questioned by the authorities.

The area behind the station was rocky and spotted with
trees. That might be a safe approach, if she decided to corner the man there.
She could park elsewhere and advance unseen on foot.

Candice took the portable cameras from the bag. If she set
the cameras up the night before, she could link the feed to her tablet
computer. This would allow her to avoid being surprised by any bystanders or
coworkers in the area. She needed him isolated. Alone and quiet. He was a good
man, stable in mind and character, but what she had to do would shake anyone.

The irony did not escape her: a former police detective,
she would be posing as a police officer – a Federal Law Enforcement one at
that. In the time since her arrival, she had forged credentials and set up an
answering service with a programmed response, should the man decide to call the
number on her card. However, she would have to meet him after 2:00 p.m. in case
he insisted upon calling the real, listed number for the U.S. Marshals Service,
in which case she could explain that her East Coast office closed at 5:00 p.m.
Eastern Time.

The day’s purchases lay on the bed. First Candice took out
the Nebo Redline Tactical Flashlight , 220 lumens, put in the batteries and
tested it. Powerful and precise, the anodized aircraft-grade aluminum
constructed light balanced perfectly in her hand. Smaller than the police-issue
tactical light she left behind when she entered the world of the Mountain Witches,
it would not do double duty as self-defense weapon. Given her circumstances,
carrying a firearm unless she absolutely had to, would be foolish. Still, being
entirely unarmed would also be unwise, so she had purchased some pepper spray and
a Kubotan key ring. The Kubotan could be held in the fist and amplified the
effect of any strike. Candice had trained with one at the police academy and
knew its effectiveness.

She would sleep a couple of hours now, and go to the NOAA
Station that night. If it looked like promising ground for a quiet, unnoticed
approach, she would set out the cameras.

It was dark when she awoke. The bedside clock showed 7:57
p.m. That left two hours to outfit herself, drive to the station and find a
secluded place up the road from it to park. Too early, and she ran the risk of
running into late workers, too late and her very presence would be suspicious.

The traffic was light, and she made good time in the rented
van. After exiting the freeway, she drove up and down the street several times.
Next to the Melville Café stood a small strip mall. Candice parked there. She
locked the door and set the alarm.

She was grateful for the training Queen Annalisse and the
other Mountain Witches had provided. This instruction in stealth and awareness
would have come in handy in many investigations from her police officer days.
Now, it was essential for her task.

The walk to the station took longer than expected, but she
was grateful for the exercise. She continued walking, past the station,
observing it as she passed. The front gate was shut and locked, a keypad at the
entrance for drivers to enter their passcode. She could get one of their codes
with a careful placement of a camera overhead, but she would almost certainly
end up on their surveillance video doing that.