Fall into Fire (Shamans of the Divide, Book 2)

Chapter Five

I didn't see Cody for a few days after the episode on the fence line. We came back to the house and he called Leonard at the college. I didn't really overhear what they said, but Cody went down the driveway to meet the sheriff and Leonard arrived not too long after. I guess three more cows were found in a similar state of slasher movie repose across on nearby ranches.

The animal outside the Whalen's property line had belonged to their neighbor, Cap Patterson, who also lost another one along the north edge of his property. An older couple on the western edge of the Whalen property lost the other two.

Leonard didn't say anything and was good at hiding what he was thinking, but I could read Billie's worry on her face.

"Those were the only animals in the county butchered like that," she said to Leonard as we sat around the dining room table a couple nights later. Cody had gone home for the evening and I'd loitered around the main house after dinner.

"Nowhere else in the county?"

Leonard shook his head and took a sip of his sweet tea.

Billie walked the linoleum floor in bare feet. She was pacing and it seemed like she was working something out in her head—or fretting herself to death. Either one. I was pretty sure I knew what she was thinking. The only reason that the animals weren't on the Whalen property and had been artfully arranged around its perimeter? Wards.

Whatever had done this was paranormal and likely from the Divide and hadn't been able to cross Leonard's wards. He was the one of the best warders in the Council and whatever had tried to disturb the Whalens must have come face to face with pretty strong magic.

"Does this make you guys nervous?" I couldn't tell if they were bothered or not, or whether I should be. So far, Billie had paced the floor and Leonard had consumed his bodyweight in sugar. A typical Wednesday night.

"Maybe on its own, I'd be able to reason it away," Leonard said, running his wrinkled hand back over the top of his ponytail. "But even then it would take a lot of convincing. Now with the smoke vision you had and the voice that you hear sometimes, I think something's trying to make contact with July."

"I wouldn't exactly call mutilating a cow attempting contact," I grumbled, the image of the gutted animal fresh in my mind no matter how hard I tried to push it away. I shuddered.

Billie walked to stand next to Leonard and put her hands on his shoulders.

"I think we need to call Coyote and Silas," she said softly.

Leonard nodded and made his way over to the big screen television that hung on the wall.

"We're going to video call him if possible," Billie said and picked up her phone. She tapped away at the screen and I assumed she was texting. A reply came back almost instantly.

"Go ahead," she said to Leonard. He messed with a few wires between the television and a laptop on the entertainment center beneath it. After a few minutes of cursing and wire switching, an image of Billie sitting on the sofa and me standing behind her popped up on the television screen.

"We're live!" Leonard said, mighty proud of himself.

I saw my image on screen and panicked. Nobody knew in the council knew I'd come to the Whalen's ranch to study with them this summer. The council had pretty much dismissed me before the dzoavit episode in Shades and then again after it—once I'd saved the day, of course.

"Do I need to get out of the shot?" I asked, but Billie patted the seat cushion beside her.

"No," was all she said. It was enough for me.

The chat program began blinking on the screen, alerting us that username "SMurrell65" was trying to make a connection. I held my breath as Leonard hit the "OK" button. It took a couple tries, but the connection was finally successful.

With a few blinks and blurred lines the image of us in the living room was replaced by one of Coyote sitting at a kitchen table. An empty chair was beside him and not much else on the walls. I couldn't tell where he was, but my best guess was somewhere on the reservation in Idaho.

The audio was patchy at first, so the initial conversation was spotty and sort of awkward.

"Hello?" Coyote had said a little too loudly.

"Can you hear..." Leonard had started to say, but Coyote's voice on the speakers interrupted him. This was getting awkward quickly as these two technology dinosaurs tried to communicate via high speed connection.

"I see you! We're on!" Coyote laughed. "Renn, we're on."

At the sound of his name, my chest tightened. I'm not sure if I sucked in a breath or made some other indication of my emotions, but Billie put her hand on top of mine and squeezed.

Seconds later, I watched Renn's tall frame walkinto the shot.