Chapter 6

“Owen!” Chris bolted up with Kasey still in his arms at the sound of Dade’s booming voice. Scrambling off the bed he lunged towards the door and rushed to open it. Owen ran by it as he stepped out. Dade stood supporting a moaning Cora.

“She kept feeling off, so we walked around more. She wanted to try to get a direction...” He lowered her to the couch. “Fuck! I should have dragged her ass back here.” Owen was already running his hands over her. “Then she just started crying out and shaking... I had to catch her when her legs gave out.” Dade paced and watched Owen continue to run his hands across her shoulders.

Leena knelt down in front of her. “Cora, take deep breaths, and let Owen take some of it.”

Steven reached down and grabbed her wrist. “Her pulse is really erratic.”

Cora cried out and opened her eyes to look at Dade. Tears were running down her cheeks.

Dade was there on his knees in front of her immediately. “What is it, honey?”

“She’s still alive... in pain, cold. She’s alone.”

He kissed her. “We’ll find her, honey.” He stood up and turned.

Chris stepped back into the room and pulled the blankets off the small bed.

Cora stood on unsteady feet. “I’m coming.”

When Dade turned back, he shook his head and looked at Leena. “Help her.” Leena and Rachel stepped on either side of Cora as they all went to the door.

Kasey glanced around. “Did someone bring a phone?”

Steven nodded. “Yeah.”

They stopped a few feet from the cabin and turned to look at Cora. She was still gripping her stomach. “Towards the creek. She can hear water.”

Nodding, Chris turned. “We need to split up.”

Patrick came running up from the direction of the circle.

Chris looked at him. “Get Justin and an ambulance and head towards the creek.” Patrick didn’t waste time with questions, just took off running in the other direction.

Kasey squeezed Chris’s hand as they started jogging down the path they’d been on the night before.

Owen and Dade went down a different path while Steven stayed with the women helping Cora.

They were almost to the creek when they heard something in the longer grass close to the trees. Stopping, Chris let go of Kasey’s hand and walked towards the sound. Kasey was right behind him. He saw something pale in the grass. Walking slowly closer, he squinted. It was a hand. Dropping to his knees, he began flattening the long grass.

There were two women lying in the grass. Their hands hand been pinned to the ground with wooden stakes. Kasey gasped as Chris knelt beside the one to check for a pulse.

There was a red cross painted on her naked chest. It looked like blood. Her face was streaked with cuts. Shaking his head, he pulled the blanket from Kasey’s hand and covered the body and face. He turned to the other staked woman.

He saw her lips move slightly and touched her neck. “Kasey,” he said quickly, “get the Doc and Owen here, now.”

Kasey handed him the sheet before turning and stumbling back the way they’d come.

Owen burst through the trees first and dropped down beside Chris. His hands shook as he held them over the woman. “What do I do?”

Chris shook his head, trying to think, as Steven came running through the brush from the left.

Steven fell to his knees and checked her pulse and eyes. “She’s in shock.” He lifted the sheet and looked under it, then glanced at her hands. “Pull those stakes from the ground. Leave them in her hands, though, or she’ll bleed out more.” Steven looked at Dade. “We’ve got to lift her gently so I can see where all this blood is coming from.”

Dade nodded and waited until Chris had pulled one stake free. Gently he lifted under the woman’s shoulder and hip so Steven could see her back.

“Fuck!” Steven hissed. He turned when Owen set the other staked arm gently on the ground. “Owen, get your hands over this and see if you can’t stop some of the bleeding. He’s sliced her back up... I don’t know how deep.”

He checked the woman’s pupils and pulse again. “Chris, she’s going to crash.” He gripped Chris’s hands and placed them directly over her heart. “When I tell you to, I want you to give her a good jolt, understand?”

Chris nodded and looked down at his hands for a second before watching Steven again.

Patrick and Justin came running through the grass and stopped quickly. Patrick looked at Rachel as he spoke. “You stop anyone that doesn’t have magic from coming in here until the ambulance arrives.” She nodded with the tears running down her face and turned to walk back on the trail.

Patrick went over to the Doc and knelt down. “Can you save her?”

Steven looked up from where he had been tying a strip of his shirt around the woman’s wrist and took a breath. “I don’t know. How far out is the ambulance?”

Patrick glanced down at his watch. “They should be at the gates anytime now.” The woman’s lips moved, and Steven glanced to Owen. “Keep holding, Owen. She’s coming around.”

Owen was sweating now, and pale, but he nodded at Dade.

Dade went to kneel behind Owen to support him. He took the stone Kasey gave him and dropped it inside Owen’s shirt to rest against his skin.

Steven cursed. “Pull him free, Dade, now!” He motioned. “Now, Chris!”

Dade pulled Owen’s hands free just as the sparks burst from Chris’s palms, barely touching the woman’s skin.

Steven bent down and checked her eyes. He looked to Patrick when he heard sirens. “Take him over there, Dade.” He motioned with his head. “I can’t even attempt to explain any of this to the paramedics.” He motioned to Chris. “Stay ready until they get here with the paddles.”

Chris nodded and didn’t dare lift his hands to wipe the sweat from his eyes.

Justin stepped in to help Dade lift Owen to his feet and move him to the edge of the area.

Leena stepped away from Cora, and she went over to help sit Owen down. She looked at Dade. “Will he be all right?” Dade didn’t answer, just continued to slowly lower the large man to the ground.

Chris turned his head to see Cora walking hesitantly toward the covered body. She knelt down and placed her hand on the bare leg sticking out from under the blanket. She cried out suddenly.

“Stop her!” Dade yelled.

Kasey spun around and grabbed Cora’s hands, pulling her away from the body.

“Cora?” Kasey pulled the trembling woman into her arms. “Cora!” Cora continued to shake. Close to tears, Kasey looked to Dade as he left Owen to come over.

He reached down and scooped Cora into his arms. “You know better.” He turned and carried her a little away from the others, then sat down with her in his lap.

Rachel ran up. “They’re here.”

Chris pulled his hands back from the body and stood up, quickly taking a step back. He got no farther than a few feet when Kasey launched herself into his arms and hugged him tightly.

Looking down at his hands, he saw the blood. Hugging her tightly to him, he made sure his hands didn’t touch her body. He stepped back with her as the paramedics came into the group.

Patrick lifted the blanket and examined the body under it. Looking up, he met Chris’s eyes and shook his head. Chris closed his eyes and lowered his head to rest his face against Kasey.

Everyone watched the paramedics and Steven work to further stabilize the woman before asking for assistance in getting her, with the stakes still in her hands, onto the stretcher.

The four women crowded around the listless Owen and kept back out of the way. Charlie came running through the grass looking bewildered. He stopped when he saw the covered body and then sat quickly, putting his head between his knees.

Kevin was right behind him. After looking around, he sat down quickly beside Charlie and spoke quietly to him.Chris waited until Steven left with the paramedics before turning to help Dade and Justin lift the body of the other woman onto the second stretcher.

Dade motioned to Leena. “Take Cora to the cabin. Chris and Justin will help Owen get there. I’ll be there as soon as we’re done.” He nodded to Kevin on the other end of the stretcher.

Everyone watched in silence as they carried the second stretcher away.

Chris hugged Kasey again quickly and then walked to where Patrick stood. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper and held it out to him. “I pocketed this before it got stepped all over or lost.”

Patrick took the page and read it. “Shit!” he spat. He looked around at everyone as he put the paper into his pocket. “Get everyone to the cabin. I’ll be there as soon as I look around here.” He cursed quietly, “With the way we all trampled it, I’ll be lucky to find anything.”

When Steven and Dade walked into the cabin, Kasey wiped the tears from her cheeks and looked at them. “Is she still alive, Doc?”

Steven nodded and let out a long breath. “For now. They’re going to let Patrick know what’s going on.”

She nodded but didn’t know what to say.

Steven looked at Cora curled up in the chair. She looked back at him with clear eyes. He turned to Owen, who was propped up on the little couch. “How’s he doing?”

Leena looked up from Owen. “Better. I’m using some herbal teas to replenish him.” A tear slipped down her cheek. “I didn’t know it could affect him like this.”

Steven lifted Owen’s arm and felt for his pulse. “Well, that was the worst-case scenario, Leena.”

Dade stepped past him and knelt down to Cora. “Speaking of that...” He picked up Cora’s hand and held it. “You know you can’t touch death, Cora. You’ve seen what could happen. What were you thinking?”

A tear slipped down Cora’s face. “I just wanted to see him. To stop him. She was in so much pain. I wasn’t thinking. Oh, Dade...” She threw her arms around his neck and started crying against his neck.

Stroking his hand over her hair, Dade lifted her until she sat resting against him. “You saved her, honey. You saved one. If you hadn’t, she would have been dead before we found her.” He rested his face against her hair and rubbed his hand up and down her back.

Owen opened his eyes and looked to see a teary-eyed Leena leaning over him. “I’m okay, baby,” he whispered and pulled her down to hold her close to him. “I’m just a little shaky now.”

Unable to watch, Kasey turned and left the room quietly.

Chris came out of his room after changing and looked around for Kasey. Not seeing her, he walked to her room. She was curled up on her cot crying so hard it shook with each sob.

He walked over to her quickly and curled his large body around her. Pulling her tightly against his chest, he held her shaking body.

Kasey lifted her tear-drenched face to his and looked into his eyes. Her eyes were filled with so much pain and grief he couldn’t breathe. “You’re breaking my heart,” he whispered to her. He kissed her teary eyes and took a hitched breath. “Tell me what to do, Kasey.”

“H-Hold me. Just hold me. Don’t let go.”

He pulled her tightly against his chest and ran a gentle hand down her back, rubbing in small, little circles. “I won’t,” he said into her hair.

Chris didn’t know how much time had passed, or how long they lay there. She finally stopped sobbing, and her breath was steady, but he had never been so unsure of what to do in his life.

Rachel came in and stood at the end of the cot. She looked at him. “Patrick, Justin, and Gwen are here.”

He nodded and spoke softly, his voice still shaking. “We’ll be out in a minute, Rach. Thanks.” Chris waited until she left to look down at the swollen green eyes looking back up at him. “We need to go out and talk to Patrick, sweetheart. Are you going to be okay with that?” She nodded. He kissed her mouth softly and then moved away from her and stood up. Taking her hand, he pulled her to her feet and wrapped his arm around her.

When they walked in the room Patrick looked at her, and then to Chris. “She okay?”

Chris nodded. “As well as can be expected.”

Patrick looked down at the notes he’d taken. “I think I have most of it for now, but I do have a question, off the record, if that’s okay.” He shrugged. “I have to know everything so I can figure out how much I have to tell my superiors and how much they don’t need to know.”

Chris sat and leaned against the wall feeling exhausted. He pulled Kasey down into his lap. He glanced around to see Owen was now sitting upright, Leena right beside him.

Cora was in the chair with Dade sitting protectively at her feet. Rachel was comforting Gwen, and Steven was writing something quickly on a notepad.

He cleared his throat. “What do you need to know?”

Patrick studied him for a moment. “I understand what Mr. Grey was doing, well, at least I do now. I’d like to know how exactly you were able to become a human defibrillator. Aside from restarting her heart and possibly saving her life, I’ve never encountered anything quite like that in all my travels or in dealing with magic.”

Chris rubbed his jaw against Kasey’s head for a moment before speaking. “It was a simple manipulation of energy.”

“Simple?” Patrick grinned, “I don’t think so.”

Chris shrugged. “It takes a lot of practice.”

Patrick was silent while Steven handed him the notebook. “Takes a lot of talent too.” Patrick raised an eyebrow. “Okay, I want all of you to go try to eat, or at least bring food back here and try. After that, I may know something I can tell you.” He started to turn until Kasey spoke to him.

“He’s going to do it again, isn’t he? That’s what the note said?” Her voice was hoarse with emotion.

Patrick stood looking down at the floor for a moment. “Yes, in forty-one days’ time, which would be Lammas.” He glanced over at Justin and then around the room. “We’ve told everyone it was a horrible accident, the reason for the ambulance, and I’m going to be advising my superiors they suggest you don’t hold another gathering.”

Gwen put her hand on his arm. “But then he could just go to another festival somewhere else and do it there.”

Patrick sighed. “Yes, he could.”

Gwen looked up at him. “He could get away with it again and again, moving around the country to do so...” She looked up at Justin a moment. “We will be having another gathering, and you will be there to help find him, Mr. Blaine. We have always held them, even when many authorities tried to stop us. The seasons don’t stop, the cycle doesn’t pause, and the gods don’t wait.” She watched him a moment more, then turned and looked around the room. “Kathy and I will bring all of you some lunch. Go outside and rest in the sun.” With that, she got up and left the cabin.

Patrick let out a long breath. “I’ll talk to you all later, before everyone starts heading home tonight.” He held the door open and looked back. “That woman, regardless of the outcome, owes all of you her life.” He turned and walked out with Justin.

Leena stood slowly. “Let’s go sit outside and let the sun relax us. Then we’ll start packing up to go home.”

One after the other, they silently followed her out the door.