“Rowan, talk to me,” Agent Mandalay pressed again. “Do you know this woman?”
“We know her as Starfyre,” I answered quietly. “She’s being considered as a dedicant in our Coven.”
“But I thought everyone was…”
“They were,” I cut her off. “We were still just considering her. She hadn’t been taken into the fold yet, so no one would have thought to call her about any of this.”
CHAPTER 23:
“So explain to me again why we weren’t watchin’ this Sullivan woman?” Ben smoothed back his hair and then winced. He pulled his bandaged hand away and then stared at it as if it was the first time he’d ever seen it. I didn’t give it long before he did away with the bandages altogether in a fit of frustration.
Apparently, he had only just gotten out of the shower when Mandalay contacted him about Porter’s call. Even though she assured him that she had things covered on our end, he insisted on returning immediately. No amount of explanation from her was going to convince him otherwise. Judging from his rumpled appearance, he had probably still been getting dressed on the drive over.
We were assembled in the living room of the small apartment. Ben occupied one end of the sofa and Mandalay the other. Felicity was parked in the chair, cradling a cup of tea between her dainty hands; but me, I couldn’t begin to think about sitting. I had too much of an infusion of nervous energy. I was standing at the sliding doors, holding the heavy drapes partially open, and looking out across the snow-covered balcony to the parking lot several floors below.
“She was only a dedicant,” I replied without turning.
It had been just slightly over an hour since Porter had called, and my anger was still fresh. My jaw had now added itself to my list of aches due to the fact that I was unconsciously grinding my teeth. I kept catching myself in the act, but I didn’t seem to be able to stop. I was still fighting a case of the jitters that was born of the creepy tune looping in the back of my head; so, I wasn’t sure if the teeth gnashing was an effect of the anger alone or a combination of rage and anxiety. Whatever the cause, it was beginning to get very old.
“And that means she’s like what? A non-person?” He splayed his hands out in a gesture of helplessness.
I shook my head sharply and allowed the drapes to fall closed as I turned. I was frustrated that I had to explain something that I perceived as trivial common knowledge especially in light of my current emotional state. I took a deep breath and huffed it back out, trying to keep in mind that Felicity and I were the only ones in the room familiar with Coven dynamics and order. “I really didn’t mean for it to sound like that,” I told him. “Basically, a dedicant is someone who has made a conscious choice to study a particular religion, or most often, religious path. What we often refer to as a tradition. They take an oath to study and learn the tradition.”
“So it’s like making a pledge or a promise. Somethin’ like that?”
“Aye, exactly,” Felicity chimed in.
“So this isn’t something unusual then?” he asked.
“Not within the confines of a Coven, no,” she answered again. “Not at all.”
“So what you’re really sayin’ is that she wanted to join your study group?” He simplified my answer as he looked back and forth between us.
“Something like that, I suppose, yes.” I nodded. “At any rate, she had approached Cally about joining our Coven some time back. We met with her on a couple of occasions, and we discussed the possibility of her dedicating. What you have to remember is that taking someone into a Coven is not something you do lightly, so we took some time to mull it over. We were actually planning to bring her in at Yule, but she was out of town.”
“So she wasn’t actually a member of your group yet?”
“No. Not officially.” I shook my head. “She would have been brought in at the next Full Moon meeting.”
“Well, Porter obviously chose her because of her relationship to you,” Mandalay offered. “He didn’t just get lucky. How would he have found out about her if she wasn’t actually a member?”
“I don’t know.” I shook my head and shrugged. “My best guess would be Randy, but I can’t be sure. It could be that Porter asked him for names when he tortured him. We pretty much know that’s how he started compiling his list of victims originally. Or it could be that Randy had her name and some notes in a day planner or a PDA.”
“Notes?” Ben asked.
“Established Covens take bringing someone new into the fold very seriously,” Felicity offered as explanation.
Ben sighed heavily then brought his other hand up to massage his neck, only to repeat the wince and stunned stare.
“Dammit,” he muttered as he shook his wounded mitt and then lowered it back into his lap.
I began to slowly pace. “I blame myself for this,” I announced. “I should have considered it as a possibility.”
“Aye, I think not,” Felicity asserted. “I’m their High Priestess. I am as much at fault as anyone, if not more.”
She had regained her composure quickly. Still, I knew by looking at her that it was a defense mechanism. What she had done was nothing more than a temporary patch job on her exterior demeanor. Inside, there was still a swirling ball of gut twisting terror, but she had no intention of letting any more of it show; not in front of Ben and Constance at least.
“Neither one of you is at fault for anything,” Mandalay returned. “There was no way you could imagine that Porter would go this route.”
“Believe me, Constance.” I gave her a quick nod. “I can imagine a lot out of this whack job. I’ve got scars to prove it.”
“Mandalay’s right,” Ben interjected. “Beating yourselves up about all this isn’t doin’ either one of ya’ any good. Not to mention that it ain’t gonna get us anywhere.”
“Well, what IS being done?” I asked.
“Right now, there’s a CSU team on their way to Sullivan’s apartment. Her car is listed on the hot sheet, and every copper on the street is lookin’ for it.”
“We don’t know that he has her car,” I objected.
“We don’t know that he doesn’t,” Ben returned. “Look, Row, let us do the cop stuff, it’s what we do. Like I’ve told ya’ before, we actually solved a few crimes by ourselves before you came along.”
I closed my eyes and put my palms up to my temples, squeezing my head between my hands and roughly massaging at the same time-as if I could will the pain away. “I’m sorry,” I muttered. “I don’t mean to be arguing with you about this. I’m just kind of at the center of it, and I’d give just about anything to be somewhere else.”
“That’s understandable,” Mandalay said. “You’ve been through a lot today.”
I shook my head. My eyes were still closed, and my fingers were now working at my scalp. “Today is just the beginning,” I said aloud. “There’s an end coming. I don’t know when or where, but I’m not sure I want to.”
The moment the words exited my mouth, I felt a wave of dread hit me. If that wasn’t enough, I could physically feel my wife’s startled gaze instantly burning a hole in my back as I stood there.
“What’s that s’posed to mean?” Ben asked.
“I don’t know,” I answered. “Forget it. I’m just rambling.”
“You sure?” he pressed. “That ain’t some kinda hocus-pocus la-la land thing you’re spoutin’ is it?”
Mandalay offered her observation. “Yeah, Rowan, that sounded a little on the morbidly prophetic side, especially coming from you.”
“Really. Forget it.” I waved a hand at them. “My head is killing me, and I’m just running off at the mouth.”
The truth was that I didn’t actually know what the comment was supposed to mean. I didn’t even know for sure why I had said it. I only knew that there actually was more to it than just idle rambling and that it sounded just as bad to me as it did to them.
“You need to take somethin’, Kemosabe?” Ben asked.
