Dae's Christmas Past Page 10

  He put his hand on mine. “You think that’s what made him give you the statue, don’t you?”

  “It wasn’t like him,” I told him. “He’s not that kind of person.”

  “Everyone knows he’s in love with you.” Kevin glanced at me. “How do you feel about him?”

  “Do you even have to ask?” I showed him the beautiful engagement ring on my finger. “You must know me well enough by now to know that I wouldn’t sneak around even if I wasn’t completely in love with you. I’m too serious to have any fun—that’s what Shayla always says.”

  I told him about Shayla leaving and my feeling that she might never come back. “I’ve been having a lot of strong impressions during the last few days. Maybe it’s the horses.”

  “Or maybe it’s being around another psychic, even if she only talks to animals.” He grinned. “You manage to get involved with some odd characters. It must be your other ‘gift’.”

  “That’s exactly what I first thought about you. Since you worked with a psychic in the FBI, I thought that’s why you were attracted to me.”

  “Are you saying I’m odd?”

  I shrugged. “You must be since I get involved with odd characters.”

  They brought Gramps back from x-ray. It was a different doctor, thank goodness. The break was simple and would be easy to repair. Gramps was impatient and ready to leave. Kevin and I sat with him while he waited for his cast.

  “What about Jake?” Gramps asked. “How’s he doing?”

  “They’re keeping him overnight for observation,” I told him. “Chiefs Michaels and Palo aren’t happy about it.”

  “Not surprising. No one likes to wait for answers.” Gramps looked around the tiny cubicle. “I’m dry as a frog on a sunny day. Could you get me something to drink?”

  “Let me.” Kevin put his hand on my shoulder as I started to get up. “I’m sure he’d rather you be here than me.”

  “Thanks, Kevin,” Gramps said. “If you see any beer, be sure to get it.”

  “I’ll do my best.”

  I hugged Gramps. “What a mess. I’m glad Chris was safe, but it sure took a lot to do it.”

  “The banner looks good.”

  “Yeah. I hope it was worth it.”

  He laughed. “It probably will be unless Jamie kills him when she gets him home.”

  Kevin brought a glass of water. “You’ll just have to pretend it’s beer, Horace. They’re probably going to give you something for pain. You shouldn’t have alcohol too.”

  “You mean you saw beer out there and passed it by?” Gramps chuckled. “You’re not the man I thought you were.”

  “I’m sure that’s true.” Kevin sat beside me and squeezed my hand. “They definitely decided to leave Jake here overnight. He’ll have plenty of armed guards so he should be safe.”

  “I hope whatever someone did to him will wear off,” I said. “Maybe we’ll have a chance to figure out what really happened to Tom while Jake is getting better.”

  Kevin shook his head as he looked at Gramps. “Your granddaughter has an amazing ability to forgive.”

  “Yes she does. She gets it from her mother and grandmother. She sure doesn’t get it from me. If I’d seen Jake give her that stupid horse, I might’ve shot him.”

  “You would not,” I argued as the attendants returned to have Gramps’s leg put in the cast.

  “We’ll never know,” he said. “You better be here when I get back.”

  When he was gone, I left Kevin to go to the ladies room. What a day! I’d be glad to go home when this was over. I called Missing Pieces, and Mary Catherine said everything was fine. There were no sales but some customers had wandered through the store.

  “Gramps should be done here soon. I appreciate you doing this. I’ll have Kevin pick you up and bring you to the house.”

  “Don’t worry about me,” she said. “Just take care of you and Horace.”

  I put away my phone and walked out of the ladies room. There was a small courtyard in the back of the building. I could see plants and shrubs surrounding some benches and a pretty fountain.

  I also saw the man in the animal skins again.

  Should I go out and talk to him? It seemed stupid if he wasn’t really there. I couldn’t understand him either way. What was the point?

  But I pushed open the door to the courtyard and looked around. He was waiting for me. “If you were trying to tell me that bad things were going to happen, you were right.”

  He answered, waving the bone around again and jumping up and down. My visitor—whether real or imaginary—looked nervous. He kept pacing the marble stones with his bare feet.

  “Do you know anything about what happened to Jake?”

  He nodded as though he understood me, but didn’t still didn’t say anything that made sense.

  I took a step back as he came closer. He stared directly into my eyes. His eyes were bloodshot and yellow around a pale brown iris. I didn’t have a chance to get farther away from him before his hand came down on my head. The world spun dizzily, and finally turned black.

  Chapter Twelve

  I awakened with a start, gasping as though I’d been holding my breath. I was worried that he was going to hand me an artifact, and grateful when he didn’t, but curious about what had happened to me.

  This didn’t seem like a normal vision. This felt real, as though it was happening to me at that moment. But I wasn’t in the garden at the hospital any more. I didn’t know where I was or why I was there. I wasn’t observing as usual. I was part of whatever this was.

  I was sitting on a patch of rough, damp soil. It was a dark place, only lit by a few torches that sputtered, leaving shadows on the walls behind them. It appeared to be a cave.

  Where were Kevin and Gramps? Were they looking for me?

  The tall horse statue I’d only seen complete in my vision was right in front of me. Jake had shown me part of the head when he’d first started digging. The rest of the body had been buried in sand and dirt. It had been excavated by the archaeologists in the past few months. Why was it underground again?

  Its craftsmanship was remarkable. It was a beautiful piece of work, with such detail in the dull, brown stone. How long had it taken someone to make it? This was a part of American artistry that would be a shame to lose.

  And yet I’d seen it in my vision by a fire where terrible evil was being planned. The horse statue wasn’t really part of that, I reminded myself. It was the human interface that was the problem.

  I got up and walked around it, careful not to touch it. Touching it might only make matters worse.

  There were meticulous carvings on the legs and face. The eyes appeared almost real, gleaming in the light from the torches. Whoever had carved this had been a master.

  I saw the man in the animal skins. He was huddled in a rough corner, the bone at his side. “I wish I could understand you.”

  He touched his head. “You understand now.”

  His words had been spoken in whatever language I’d heard before, but now I could understand them. “Because you touched me? Is that why I can understand you now?”

  “You. Me. The same.” He wrapped his hands together.

  The same? “You mean we both have a psychic gift. Is that right?”

  “Yes.”

  I glanced around the cave. “Why did you bring me here?”

  “I die here.”

  “You die here now?”

  There were no records of people living here a thousand years ago. There was no way of knowing who they were or what had happened to them. Perhaps there had been an earthquake that had sealed the horse in the sand. Or the sea could have risen on the island and then gone back again.

  One thing I noticed—there was no way out. The walls were irregular, but no doors or any other openings existed. I was afraid to run my hand along the edges for fear of what I might find, but I grabbed a torch and searched carefully. If there was an exit, I didn’t see it.

  “Now.�
�� He nodded. “I was first. I die to keep the demons away.”

  “You were the first to bring the demons through the fire?” I sat close to him for the comfort of being with another human even though we were so different. “You were punished for it?”

  “Yes.” His lined face was worn and sad. “Too much killing. Not let demons out again.”

  He’d been locked inside the tomb they’d made for the horse so the demons couldn’t be called again. I got it.

  And I was terrified.

  Panic built inside me. It was hard to breathe. The air was stale, like a basement that had been closed off for too long. The damp and mildew were beginning to bother me.

  I tried to think of it rationally. I was really lying on the flagstones or grass in the courtyard at the hospital. That strange little man had touched me and brought me here but it was only in my mind. I wasn’t really here at all. There was no reason to panic. I’d wake up soon or Kevin would notice I’d been gone too long and come find me.

  “What is your name?” I asked the man across from me. “I’m Dae O’Donnell. You could be an ancestor of mine.”

  “Osisko.” He patted his thin chest and then drew a horse figure in the sand. “Horse man.”

  “The horse was your totem.” I tried not to notice that the torches were flickering as the oxygen was used up. “That’s why you were able to call them. That’s why you have to die.”

  He nodded. “Dae stop evil.”

  “I hope so.”

  The underground area was sealed. No air. No fire. The flames grew dimmer and began to die out. My heart fluttered with them. How many times had I asked myself what would happen if I died in a vision? If Osisko died, would I die too because he’d brought me there?

  I forced myself to be calm. Any minute now, I wouldn’t be here. I’d be back at the hospital waiting for Gramps. This would all be something I could tell him and Kevin. There was really no reason to be scared. I wasn’t really here.

  The last torch sputtered and died. The black was so absolute that I couldn’t even see Osisko right in front of me. I literally couldn’t see my hand in front of my face. There was nothing but endless darkness.

  My breath came harder. I squeezed my eyes shut and hoped someone would wake me. I didn’t belong here. I was supposed to be in the light many years from now. It was getting harder and harder to breathe. The air whistled in and out of my lungs. I felt lightheaded and sick to my stomach.

  Come on, Kevin!

  I finally lay down in the sand. I couldn’t sit up anymore. I gasped for air. The world was beginning to fade away. I didn’t want to let go of my life.

  It was ridiculous to even think that since I wasn’t really here.

  I had to leave. Now.

  My eyes closed and I said a small prayer that I wasn’t really alone in this terrible place. Then I fell asleep, or lost consciousness. I don’t know which.

  That seemed to be it for Dae O’Donnell.

  Then I slowly realized that there was bright light on the other side of my eyelids. I opened my eyes and looked around. I wasn’t in the dark hole with the giant horse statue and Osisko anymore. I was on a sunny beach with the one man I never expected to see again.

  “And what are ye doin’ here?” a familiar voice asked.

  “Am I dead?” I asked my nefarious ancestor, Rafe Masterson.

  He laughed as he threw some sticks on a fire. He was the same as I recalled his ghost that had visited me when he needed help clearing his name. It was then that I’d learned that the Scourge of Duck was in my family tree.

  “I hardly think so. As to why ye’re here, that might be any man’s guess. I assure you, madam, that I am very much alive, and so are you.”

  I scrambled to my feet. “You’re not alive. You’re a ghost. That has to mean that I’m dead too. But why am I dead here?”

  “Ye’re beginning to sound a bit mad. What makes ye think that I’m dead?”

  “Because I’m your great-great-grandniece, Dae O’ Donnell. We can’t be alive at the same time. You were dead a long time before I was born, remember? You wanted me to clear your name because you were hanged for being a pirate, but you hadn’t done anything illegal.”

  He stood up straight, towering over me, his hands on his hips. His flinty eyes stared into mine. “I think ye’d best be leavin’. This here beach might not be big enough for the two of us. Off you go. I don’t like killing women as a rule, even the mad ones.”

  “I can’t leave. Where would I go? I don’t belong here. I’m from the future. It’s not like I can stay in this time.” I considered what I was saying. “Unless this is heaven—or the other place. Either way, I’m not going anywhere until I figure it out. Where are we supposed to be?”

  “It’s not where we’re supposed to be, lass. It’s where we are. This is the edge of the Carolinas that falls into the sea. There’s nowhere to go from here—especially if ye’re like me and ye have a price on yer head.”

  I studied him closely. I’d been wrong at my first glance at him. This was a younger version of my ancestor than the ghost that had visited me. He was probably still in his pirate days. He looked lean and mean, doubtless waiting for his crew to come and get him after he’d finished burying his treasure.

  “I can see I made a mistake.” I made a little curtsey to him. “You aren’t the man I thought you were. Good day to you, sir.”

  “Ye wait up there. Ye seemed so certain of who I was just a moment ago. I believe ye know who I am now. I can’t let ye leave after all. A man like me can’t be too careful.” His cutlass slid out of the scabbard hanging from his belt.

  I glanced at the rock formation behind him. It was the rocky outcropping that was shaped like a duck. I was right about why he was here. This was the tiny island off the coast of Duck where he’d buried his treasure. Of course he didn’t want me to leave with that information.

  “I thought you didn’t kill women,” I said as I backed away from him.

  “I said I didn’t like it. It leaves a foul taste in me mouth. But that don’t mean I won’t do it if I need to. I’m sorry, Mistress O’Donnell, but I can assure ye that a long drink of rum will get rid of that foul taste.”

  He kept advancing on me with his cutlass raised high. Good grief! I’d been sure that I’d died in that cave with the horse, and now I was facing a brutal death at the hands of my own ancestor.

  “If you kill me now, there won’t be anyone to set things right for you after you die,” I warned.

  He threw back his head and laughed. “I don’t plan to worry about it. Once I’m dead and buried, that’s it for Rafe Masterson. I’ll take my chances with Davy Jones.”

  I had backed into another rock that was behind me. He wasn’t going to let me skirt around it and run away. I was trapped again, only this time I didn’t have faith in the idea that I was actually at the clinic and would come to my senses at any moment.

  That is what you get for using your gift. If you’d left it alone, you wouldn’t be about to die at the end of a sword.

  I didn’t have as much as a stick to fight back with. So I closed my eyes and hoped something better was on the other side. There was a loud thud that was followed by a painful groan. I opened my eyes, squinting in case the sword was still coming at me.

  But now there was a woman staring down at Rafe who was lying on the beach with his eyes closed. She was dressed as a pirate in dark short britches and a tattered blue shirt. She wore a scarf over her hair with a worn hat on top of it.

  She turned to face me and smiled. “Hello, Dae. I would have known you anywhere. You look just like your mother.”

  “Grandma Eleanore?” I could hardly form words. “I seriously must be dead.”

  “No. Not yet.” Her blue eyes were smiling at me as she gave me a big hug. “I had a feeling we’d run into each other at some point. I can’t tell you how good it is to see you. I’m sorry I couldn’t make it until you were born. I knew you would have the gift too. There were so many things I
wanted to teach you.”

  “But how can I be alive and you’re here?”

  “It’s difficult to explain.” Rafe groaned and moved his head. “My knocking him out with a rock is only going to last so long. He’s got a hard head. Let’s get out of here and find someplace we can talk.”

  I took her hand, and there was an instant when nothing was there. It was a blank screen—that’s the best way I can describe it. One moment we were standing on the sunny beach, and the next we were in a pleasant room, sitting at a table with a steaming tea pot and two cups in front of us.

  I blinked several times. How was this happening to me? Was I travelling through time? I’d seen plenty of things in the past. Had my gift brought me to this place where anything was possible?

  “There. That’s much better, don’t you think?” Grandma Eleanor was exactly as I’d seen her in many pictures. But those photos hadn’t shown me the vitality in her face or the curiosity in her eyes. She had a bit of impishness about her mouth that I’d never noticed in a photo.

  “I really don’t know. What’s going on?”

  She poured us each a cup of Earl Grey tea. I recognized the aroma at once. The cups were matching rose Victorian china, set on matching saucers. “Our paths have intersected for a moment, Dae. Just as yours had with Rafe. It won’t last long. I wish it could so we would be able to get to know each other. When you use your gift, you move through time to see where an object or a person has been. I’m here using my gift from a point before you were born.”

  Only one word could do this justice—“Wow.”

  Grandma Eleanor laughed. “Yes. I’m so sorry I wasn’t there to guide the development of your gift. Your mother, bless her heart, didn’t share it. She tried to understand, but it’s not the same. She must be very proud of you, Dae. You’re a beautiful young woman.”

  I sipped the tea. Was it real? I wasn’t sure, but I needed something to keep from bursting into tears. “She’s been dead a long time.”