Loose Ends (The Hammer Commission Book 3) Page 10

  "Mom, with power like this, once I learn how to use it, I can get any man I want, I'm sure."

  "But they'll only want you because of the power, Bethany," her mother warned, using her full name, which she only did when she was getting cross with her. Of course her mom getting cross was about as far as it ever went. She never raised her voice, or even swore.

  "Mom," Beth sighed, and decided to placate her, "once this is all over, I'll call him and apologize and make it up. It's not like he's going to find anyone else in a week or two, or even a month."

  "Fine," her mother said, taking Beth's word for it. Beth had to admit, her mom had a point. She already had Tommy under her thumb, and he was going to be rich one day, probably one day soon. Why should she look for someone else? Once she got the power, she'd go back to him. One way or another, she'd have him back. Once she got whatever power she could of course.

  "Now, show me what you found," her mother said looking just a little bit eager herself.

  "We better take it outside, this stuff stinks something fierce. Tommy found it in a jet engine. So it's a bit burned up and rotten."

  Her mother nodded and led the way out to the backyard. Beth picked up the cooler and followed her through the house and out into the yard.

  "Where's dad?"

  "He had a delivery to make this morning, so he left about an hour ago, around eight."

  Beth nodded and set the cooler down.

  "Don't lean in until after it's been open a little bit, it really is pretty nasty.

  Her mother nodded, and Beth pulled the top off, leaning away from it to avoid catching the worst of the smell.

  "Wow!" her mother said, waving her hand before her face, "That is pretty bad alright, dear."

  "Yeah, I guess getting sucked into a jet engine did a number on it."

  "What kind of bird was it?"

  Beth shrugged, "I have no idea. It's wrapped in plastic, so you can touch it, without getting any of it on you."

  Her mother nodded and kneeled down next to the small cooler; she put her hands to either side of the cooler first. Beth watched as her mother concentrated for a moment. Her mother wasn't as powerful, or as sensitive, as Beth was. But she was still stronger than any of the others in her mother's coven, which is why her mother led it.

  "I can feel it already," her mother said. "You're right, this is strong, I've haven't felt anything even close to this, since the time I was in Cairo."

  "You were in Cairo?" Beth asked, surprised. She'd never heard her mother speak of that before.

  "That was where I met your father, dear."

  "I thought you met him at a Dead concert?"

  "Yes, that was where it was. Now give me a moment to concentrate."

  Beth watched as her mother put both of her hands into the cooler, to either side, coming close to, but not touching, the plastic wrapped black flesh sitting in the bottom. It wasn't very big, maybe a quarter of a pound, if that. It was the second largest whole piece that Tommy had found.

  "Yes," her mother said pulling her hands out and sitting back on her heels, "it is powerful alright, very powerful. It feels a little chaotic, but that may be just because whatever it came from is dead now and died violently."

  "How can you tell it died violently?" Beth asked, a little surprised by her mother's insight.

  "Well how else would you describe getting sucked into a jet?" her mother replied, looking at her with a smile. "Really Bethany, I would have thought that would be obvious!"

  Beth sighed and shaking her head, she put the lid back on the cooler.

  "So, what do you want to do with it?" her mother asked.

  "I want to convene a coven. Not the full one, the special one, the one you use to do your magic. I want to see if we can extract this power and use it," Beth said looking at her mother rather hopefully.

  Her mother put her hand under her chin in obvious thought. Beth watched her as she just sat there over a minute, thinking about what, Beth had no idea. But her mother knew a lot about ritual magic, she'd had to learn all about it, as her own powers were so weak.

  After a couple of minutes her mother stood up and looked down at her.

  "There is a full moon coming soon, and the stars will be aligned rather favorably that night. I had already planned to work some rituals that night to see if we could do something for Elksong, he's getting old and starting to feel it in his bones.

  "But I think we'll see what we can do with this, if we can gain any power from it, not only could we help Elksong with his troubles, but we might be able to do something for Moonwinter's daughter."

  "What's wrong with Carol?" Beth asked.

  "She has cancer. We tried to help her, but we're just not powerful enough to tackle something that strong, so they've been forced to rely on modern medicine and it's bankrupting them."

  Beth nodded, "Okay, but that's over a week away! Why so long?"

  "Because I need to study the rituals and see what I can learn. I've never done anything like this before. I'll have to be careful. Power is a dangerous thing, Beth, a very dangerous thing, if you don't learn how to control it and how to use it."

  Beth nodded.

  "And you're going to have to help me with all of this. You're more talented than I am, dear. So you're going to be going over all of this with me, so I can make sure we do it right, understand?"

  "Yes, mom," Beth acquiesced. She knew her mother wouldn't let her do this if she didn't take the time to go over everything beforehand. She was okay with that, the last thing she wanted to do was to make a mistake and lose her one chance at finally getting her hands on some real power!

  Beth stood up and took her mother's hand when she offered it.

  "Thanks, Mom," Beth said and smiled.

  "I want the best for you Beth, you're my only child. You will be able to do so much more good in the world with this than I ever could. Just promise to be careful."

  "I promise, Mom."

  Kelly Nightwind smiled at her headstrong, but gifted daughter. Beth was often a trial, but she was strong, and she was stubborn. She had faith that she'd be able to do great things one day.

  Beth smiled back at her mother; she was one-step closer, and only a few steps away.

  11: Enroute to Klamath Falls, Oregon

  Mark sighed and leaned back into the nice leather seat of the small corporate jet. When Agent Woods, their boss, had heard of their request for airline tickets he'd squashed it immediately and gotten them one of the FBI owned and operated corporate jets. Woods figured that they may need to bring back things, or even people, that were best kept out of public view.

  Looking at Michael, Mark was pretty sure that Woods was right, just not in the way that he thought. When he roused Michael this morning, he'd found two things. The first was that Michael had gotten bit. The second, and more interesting, is that both of his daughters had bitten him.

  Apparently his little lecture had got them thinking and as they both quickly pointed out, he'd done well with four wives, so they figured Michael would do okay with two.

  So a rather exhausted Michael was asleep on a couch with Jess and Gail on either side of him. There was no way Mark was going to let Michael go running around without at least one of them by his side now, and both girls had made it rather clear that they weren't letting him out of their sight right now either.

  Mark was just surprised that they had couches on corporate jets.

  He'd decided to draft Denise as well, which meant Dave was there too. They were sitting next to each other and chatting quietly, though every time Denise glanced over at Michael she couldn't help snickering.

  So it was quite the family gathering.

  The nice thing about having their own jet was Mark even got to bring along some of the more interesting hardware he'd acquired back years ago when they'd gone after that vampire. Oregon was very forgiving on gun laws, and so he had brought a few things, just in case. He'd also stopped by church on the way out of town and took care of a few things the
re as well.

  He had no idea what kind of situation they were walking into, and whatever it was, he was sure it had some time to develop into something difficult. That girl Beth had run off with that sample of devil flesh almost two weeks ago now, and even if it was all dead, the remains still had quite a bit of nastiness in them, and that stuff could take years to fully degrade, not unlike the half-life of most radioactive elements.

  One of the pilots came back to talk to him, dubiously eyeing the odd assortment of people with him.

  "We'll be landing in fifteen minutes, Sir. You might want everyone to get ready."

  Mark smiled, "Thanks, and call me Mark. I'm not much of one for formalities, especially as I'm supposed to be on vacation."

  "Is that why you have all of these civilians with you?" he asked.

  "Actually, Michael and Denise," Mark said pointing them out, "are both agents. The other three are actually here for support reasons, which generally boil down to 'you're not taking my fiancé away a week before the wedding when you're all supposed to be on vacation!'" Mark said with a grin.

  The pilot looked at the others, and then back at Mark, "Couldn't they have gotten someone else to do this then?"

  "Unfortunately, no. This is all rather classified, and we're specialists."

  "Including the civilians?"

  Mark chuckled, "Including the civilians. How do you think they met in the first place?"

  "I don't know...."

  Mark shrugged, "If you're worried about it, just include it in your report. My boss and his boss both know what's going on. Don't feel like you have to cover for me if you're afraid it will get you in trouble."

  The pilot shrugged and went back to the cockpit, closing the door behind him.

  "What was that all about?" Denise asked.

  "Oh, the pilot was wondering about you and your boy toy," Mark smirked.

  Dave snickered and Denise scowled.

  "No, really, what did he want?"

  "We're landing in fifteen minutes."

  "I heard that part," Denise said, "I was just wondering about the rest of it?"

  "Oh, he's worried that we're abusing agency property, probably just wants to know what to say if anybody asks him about the extra passengers. Originally they were told there was only going to be two of us."

  Mark turned to the three on the couch.

  "Wake Michael up, girls, we need to get ready."

  Jess shook Michael awake and they all sat up as Michael stretched and yawned.

  They taxied the jet to a parking spot that was fairly close to the general aviation terminal. Mark had called a local car rental agency and had them dropping off two rather large SUV's with four-wheel drive. Denise and Dave would take one, Mark and Michael the other, with Jess and Gail going with them.

  "How long do you need us here, Mark?" the pilot he had talked to asked, while the other one was shutting down the jet and taking care of whatever it is pilots took care of.

  "Until we leave," Mark told him. "Hopefully, we'll be out of here tonight, but I can't be sure. Give me your phone number and I'll give you a heads up. For now, I'd say button up the plane, go rent a car and burn up your expense account. I'll let you know if you need to rent a room and spend the night."

  "What he's saying," Michael said coming over, "is that we'll sign your expense account requests, just don't put down that you were stuffing twenties in a stripper's g-string."

  "Yeah, call it something else," Mark smiled.

  "Sounds good to me!" the pilot smiled and gave them his phone number.

  They grabbed their bags then and headed for the terminal, Mark could see the SUV's parked next to it, and someone from the rental agency waiting next to them.

  "Two cars?" Michael asked.

  "Six people in one car would be crowding, especially if we have to haul someone back with us," Mark pointed out.

  "Makes sense, so what's the plan?"

  "You and I will head over to Beth's parent's house and see what we can learn. Denise and Dave, see if you can scare up someone from the local wolf clan and see if they've heard about anything strange going on in town."

  "How am I supposed to find the local wolf clan?" Denise asked.

  "Don't worry, I can handle that," Dave grinned.

  "Dave's been here before," Mark said, "just try not to get into too much trouble; this is work, not play. Got that?"

  "Yes, Dad," Dave said.

  "Remember, most covens like to do their rituals out in the forests, find out from them where they go to do them. We'll probably have to go and check those places and see if we can figure out just what they did."

  "Got it," Denise said.

  Mark walked up to the gal from the rental agency that was standing there in a company jacket and holding a clipboard. He showed her his FBI ID, signed the paperwork, took the keys and gave one set to Denise, then led them all over to the cars and loaded everything up and headed off into town while Michael programmed the address into the GPS.

  "Think they'll be alright?" Jess asked from the backseat.

  "Clem's not here, they'll be fine," Mark said.

  "I'm not sure Denise is an improvement over Clem," Jess chuckled.

  "Clem something of a hell raiser?" Michael asked.

  "Clem never starts anything," Jess said.

  "Yeah, he just finishes it!" Gail laughed.

  "That sounds like Denise alright," Michael chuckled.

  Mark sighed and hoped he wouldn't have to bail anyone out this time.

  The trip from the airport wasn't a long one; Klamath Falls wasn't that big of a town. They pulled up in front of a ranch house in a neighborhood on the edge of town. Nothing fancy, but still in decent shape.

  "You two wait here," Mark said to Jess and Gail as he parked and opened the door to get out.

  "I thought we're supposed to stay with Michael at all times?" Gail said, smiling sweetly at him.

  "I'll be with him, and that's good enough," Mark growled, "now don't sass your old man while he's working."

  Mark got out and closed the door, then looked at Michael as he came around the SUV.

  "Both, Michael? You had to take both? Really now," Mark said shaking his head.

  Michael blushed, "Don't look at me, it was their idea! Not that I mind of course." Michael smiled rather happily then, "Actually, I kind of like the idea now that I've had some time to adjust."

  "Yeah, well. Good luck with that," Mark said walking up to the front door.

  "What? You married four! Compared to you, this should be easy!" Michael teased.

  "And notice I don't let them live together. It's bad enough when two of them decide to gang up on me."

  "Well, let's see if anybody is home," Michael said and knocked on the door as they both took out their badges.

  Michael was about to knock a second time, when the door flew open and a man looked at them, eye's wide.

  "FBI..." Michael started.

  "Blessed be, you're here at last!" he said, motioning for them to come inside.

  "Come in, please, come in!" He said, turning and going back inside.

  Mark looked and Michael and shrugged, then followed the man inside, looking him over as he did. The man was a little stooped over, which considering how tall he was, easily a good six inches taller than Mark, was probably the result of having to stoop to go through doorways all of his life. He was a thin gangly man that looked maybe fifty, with long stringy blond hair. The scent of incense in the air was fairly strong, but not strong enough to cover the smell of marijuana in the house. He was wearing a vest over an old Grateful Dead shirt for the Europe seventy-two concert, old blue jeans, and sandals.

  "I called the police three days ago, and they told me not to worry, that they probably just lost track of the time and not to worry about it!"

  "Sir, if you could start at the beginning, please?" Michael asked as the guy walked over to an old easy chair and dropped into it. Mark looked around the room; it reminded him of one of his high school f
riend's bedrooms. There were old posters of rock bands, other mystical looking pictures that probably meant something to wiccan's, and a series of paintings that were all rather good and signed 'Nightwind'.

  "Have a seat," he said, motioning to the couch behind a rather well made oak coffee table.

  "Sure thing, Mr. Sundancer, correct?"

  He nodded, "Call me Jeb."

  "So, tell us what happened?"

  "Well, Beth came back from Portland, she had something special and she said it was magical, real magic, powerful stuff. Not the weak stuff Kelly had to deal with all the time."

  "Could you tell if it was magical?" Mark asked.

  Jeb shook his head, "No man, I don't have the sight. It just looked like spoiled meat to me, and smelled like shit. But Beth, Beth has the sight! She can feel things, she can tell. Just like she knew that she had to go with that mechanic guy she met in Portland. She knows!

  "So, Kelly and her, they decide that they're going to do some high magic, pull out what's in the stuff Beth brought home, and do some real magic! That they're gonna harness it all, and put that power to use!"

  "Use doing what?" Michael asked.

  "Hades if I know, I don't know magic. I work with my hands, man.

  "So anyway, they put together a group of the more powerful people from Kelly's coven and they drove up to their special place on the mountain, where they do their rituals and their magic.

  "But they haven't come back! They should have been back by now!" he said and jumped up and started pacing back and forth.

  "Something's wrong, man. Something is just wrong."

  "When did they go?" Mark asked.

  "Thursday. Friday was a full moon and they said the stars would be right. They should have been back Saturday, Sunday at the latest!"

  "Where is their place on the mountain?"

  Jeb shrugged, "I don't know. They didn't go to the usual place where we have our usual ceremonies. I drove up there Monday to check it out, just in case they ended up there. But nobody was. So I came home and called the police."

  "Who around here would know where this special place is?" Michael asked.

  Jeb shook his head, "I don't know man, I just don't know. Most of the serious witches in the coven are up there with her. The others? I don't think they know where it is. If you're not in the inner circle, you don't know where it is. It's for serious magic and they don't want anyone messing up and hurting themselves."