Chapter 7
SEVEN
My name was a scream on Galen’s lips when I emerged back in my world. I registered two things immediately. One, it was dark. The second was that at least twenty people were scouring the field.
Galen practically tackled me. His chest was heaving and he said my name three times before I managed to find the words to respond.
“Hey.” It was a lame greeting but I was discombobulated.
“Hey?” He crushed me to his chest and held me so tight he almost squeezed the life out of me. “Hey? That’s all you have to say?” His voice was ragged with tears.
I held him back, briefly closing my eyes. My mind was back on the other plane but I wasn’t so much of a narcissist that I didn’t realize he’d gone through hell.
“Hey,” I repeated, melting into him.
He rocked back and forth for a full minute, taking me along for the ride, his cheek resting on the top of my head.
When he could speak again without crying, he pulled back far enough to look at my face.
They’d brought search lights and through the shadows I could see several shifters returning to human form as they burst forth from the tree line.
They were naked as they searched for the piles of clothes they’d left behind.
“Hey,” I said in a brighter voice as I met his gaze.
“Say that again and I’ll lose it,” he warned.
“Sorry.” I held out my hands, rueful. “I’m not sure what else to say.”
“I can think of a few things.” Booker appeared from behind Galen. He looked relieved, but tension lined the corners of his eyes. “Where the hell have you been?”
“Oh, well, you know.” I waved vaguely at the symbol. It no longer whispered to me. Perhaps that had been part of the trap.
“Where did you go?” Aurora, calmer than Galen and Booker, asked.
“Another plane,” I replied. “The same plane Clive went to.”
Galen’s eyes filled with fury. “Did you see him? Did he do this?”
“Oh, I saw him.” My lips curved down as the disgusting tableau filled my head. “He didn’t cause this.”
“How can you be sure?” Now that things were calmer, Booker, his professor face firmly in place, only cared about getting answers.
“Clive is dead.”
“You’re sure?” Galen was still worked up, but as sheriff he had to put on a brave face for his men and whoever else had arrived to help with the search.
“Certain.” I rolled my neck. “I don’t suppose I could get some water?” I was parched. Traveling between planes was tiring.
Galen scooped me up before I realized what was happening and carried me toward the spot where two vehicles — both marked with Moonstone Bay Sheriff’s Department insignias — were parked.
He put me down on the tailgate of the nearest one and rummaged in the cooler behind me, coming back with a bottle of water.
He cracked it himself before handing it to me.
“I could have walked,” I said.
“Good for you.” There was anger in his voice but I knew it wasn’t directed at me.
Well, join the club, buddy.
I drank half the bottle before coming up for air and then finished it off before speaking. “I saw my mother,” I blurted as I handed the empty bottle to Galen.
He took it, crumpled it in his hand, shoved it in a bag that I knew would go to the recycling center, and handed me another bottle.
“We need more information than that,” Booker said when Galen didn’t respond.
I told them everything that had happened. When I got to the part about her walking me to another door so I could return they all frowned.
“I think Wesley is over there,” I said as I sipped from my second bottle. “I think he’s there and this thing — this him — has him.”
“You’re not suggesting we cross over?” Aurora asked.
“Not right this second,” I replied. I wasn’t ruling out a return trip. “Besides, I’m not sure that thing is still active.” I pointed to the symbol. “It’s not whispering to me any longer.”
Galen balked. “Whispering?”
I turned sheepish. “I didn’t mean to cross, but it was calling to me. I wanted to see if I could understand the magic I was feeling.”
“And?” His expression was hard, a muscle in his jaw pulsing.
“Booker surprised me when he said my name and I just kind of slipped over.”
“Slipped over?” Galen stepped away, making sure not to touch me, and crossed his arms over his chest. Yup, he was definitely mad.
“Please don’t turn this into a thing,” I whined. “I’ve had a really hard day.”
“You said it was only an hour,” Aurora pointed out. “We had a really long day searching for you.”
I cringed. “Just give me an estimate,” I pleaded. “Are you going to be mad thirty minutes or three days?”
“Forever,” Galen snapped.
We both knew that wasn’t true. The man was quick to anger but he got over it just as quickly. “Okay. I’ll wait.” I smiled and kicked my feet on the tailgate, looking between faces. “I’m sorry I freaked you out,” I said to Booker. “I didn’t know that was going to happen.”
“You might have known that something was going to happen,” Booker countered, “but I’ll give you a pass.”
Aurora hauled herself up next to me. She gave a fuming Galen a dubious look, then focused on me. “Was it really your mother?”
It was a question I couldn’t answer. I wanted to — I wanted guidance — but I had trouble wrapping my head around it. “Maybe?”
“Her body is here,” Aurora argued. “We’ve all seen it.”
“Maybe it’s her soul,” Booker suggested.
That had me eyeing him closer. “Her soul?”
He bobbed his head. “Souls can be on one plane when the body is on another. What do you think Heaven is?”
I’d never really given it much thought. “She asked the right questions,” I said.
“What does that mean?” Galen was still angry but he was interested. It looked as if his fingers were twitching to touch me but he was determined to remain angry.
“She didn’t ask about my powers, or if I had magical friends,” I explained. “She asked if I was happy.”
“What did you say?”
I gave him a sunny smile even as I recognized he wasn’t ready for it yet. “I said that I was happy. I said I was in love and getting married.”
“Maybe,” he muttered.
I didn’t take his words to heart. “I told her your name. I wasn’t certain if I should, but she asked if Marjory was your mother and seemed relieved that you hadn’t turned out like her.”
“She and my mother grew up together,” Galen replied. “My mother was a few years older.”
“I’m guessing they weren’t best friends forever.”
His lips quirked but he resumed glaring after he caught himself on the verge of smiling. “Mom thought your mother was a hippie-dippy, as she put it. I’m sure your mother thought mine was controlling and bossy.”
“She would have been used to that with May as her mother.” That’s when something else hit me. “Has anybody seen her?”
Galen’s expression softened. “No. I tried finding her. When you went missing … .” He shook his head. “I called for her but she didn’t come.”
“I think she’s over there with Wesley.” I didn’t even know I believed that until the words were out of my mouth. “Or maybe I just want that to be the case.”
“We know that souls can exist without bodies on that plane,” Aurora said reasonably. “It’s possible May is there too.”
I tried to picture what had happened to get my grandfather to the other plane. “She probably wanted to stick close to Wesley.”
“She should have come to us,” Galen argued.
“Yeah, but when you have to think fast … .” I choked up. “If I was the ghost I would’ve gone with you.”
He gave me an exasperated look. “I’m still mad at you.”
“Oh, I know.” I smiled. “You won’t be for much longer, though. You can’t hold out and we both know it.”
“Now I’m going to stay mad just because you said I can’t.”
He made me laugh. He always made me laugh. My smile didn’t last. “How are we going to get Wesley back?”
“I don’t know,” he replied solemnly. “We’ll figure it out.”
“Tell us about your mother,” Aurora prodded. “What did she say?”
“She made a few references to me having May’s sense of humor,” I started.
Booker gave me a sidelong look. “You know, you do have May’s sense of humor.”
“Is that good or bad?” I was honestly curious.
“It’s funny,” he replied. “If I had to live with you, I might not think it was funny.”
“It’s not,” Galen replied moodily. He really was determined to be mad at me. I couldn’t change it — I was oddly tired even though I didn’t feel as if I’d been gone that long — so I decided to ignore it.
“She mentioned that I reminded her of my father.” I had to run the interaction through my head again. “She didn’t act nostalgic. She didn’t cry.”
“Did you want her to cry?” Aurora asked.
“If I’d never known my daughter I might cry a little.” I frowned. “I mean, what if we had a kid?” I gestured between Galen and me. “What if I died in childbirth and he raised our daughter? I would be weepy if I got to meet her as an adult.”
“I believe you’ve traumatized me enough for one day,” Galen growled.
“Sorry.” I held out my hands sheepishly. “I guess I just expected more emotion. I used to dream about seeing her." I swiped at my cheek when a lone tear escaped, irritated with myself for falling apart.
“Dammit!” Galen pulled me to him for a hug. “I’m still mad,” he announced, his hands roaming my back as he kissed the top of my head. “But I can’t stand it when you cry.”
“I’m being stupid,” I said, pushing away from Galen. If I let him hold me I would cry harder. “Forget I said anything.”
Galen gave me a dubious look. “I’ll let you cry on my manly chest later when it’s just the two of us. That can be your penance for the door thing.”
“Aw, how sweet,” Booker taunted. “You’ve already forgiven her. You’re such a marshmallow.”
Galen skewered him with a glare, then turned back to me. “Baby, it’s okay to feel things about what happened. I wasn’t close with my father but the thought of seeing him under similar circumstances … .” He held out his hands. “You’re allowed to feel what you feel.”
“I don’t know what to feel,” I admitted. “It happened so fast.”
“What about Clive?” Booker asked, smoothly changing the subject. “How did he die?”
I frowned at the memory. “Horribly. He was strung up between two trees. He had been stabbed in the stomach. His insides were on the outside.” I cringed. I was never going to get that image out of my head.
“Who killed him?” Booker asked.
“She wouldn’t give me a name. She said there wasn’t time. She was afraid, almost as if she were helping me escape something.”
“Maybe that’s exactly what she was doing,” Aurora said. “You said you saw a shadow.”
I shuddered at the memory. “I think it belonged to something terrible.” I paused a beat. “The first thing I thought when I saw the way Clive was … posed was that it was like a scene from a television show. Like one of those really creepy serial killers on Criminal Minds.”
“Is that what you think we’re dealing with?” Galen asked. “A creepy serial killer?”
“Mom said he set a trap for me. She also said he put his art — that’s what she called it — near every door to intimidate me.”
“He won’t give up just because you escaped,” Booker said. “We need to figure out who he is, why he’s over there.”
“We also need to figure out if his ultimate plan is to come here,” Galen added. “Maybe he thinks he needs Hadley’s magic to open a specific door.”
“That’s an interesting hunch,” Aurora mused.
“I’m full of them.” Galen glanced at me. “It’s obvious Wesley was taken for bait.”
“We have to get him back,” I insisted.
“We will,” Galen promised, his hands moving to my shoulders. “We’ll do what it takes. Right now, I should get you home. It’s been a long day.”
“Not for me.”
“Maybe you’re whacked out from the fear and adrenaline,” Aurora suggested.
“I guess.”
“We’ll pick up food on the way home,” Galen said. “We’ll get some rest, then we’ll figure this out.”
It was clear he had more he wanted to say but he smiled. “You owe me a back rub for not being mad any longer,” he added.
I reached for a smile but missed. “That seems fair.”
“You’ve earned a lecture too.”
I scowled. “Can’t I just remember all your other lectures and spank myself?”
Booker choked on the water he was drinking. “Sorry,” he sputtered when all eyes turned to him.
Galen rolled his eyes. “Unbelievable,” he muttered.
Now I managed a legitimate smile. “Take me for food. I’m starving.”
“I didn’t think I was hungry when you were missing, but now I’m starving too.”
“We make a great pair.”
He shook his head. “I’m not falling for the mushy stuff. You took ten years off my life today.”
I had news for him: I would go back if it meant finding Wesley. I had no other choice.