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Display a printable version May Day
I have to sleep now. Karen. I can't stay awake. I'm sorry. I tried. I really did. Karen, I'm scared. Help me. Karen woke up with a gasp. "Sebastian? Sebastian? Where are you?" She looked around and found him curled up in stone form on the pillow next to where her head had been. One paw was outstretched as if he had been reaching for her when the 'sleep' took him. She picked up the stone figure and cradled him to her belly. He was still alive. She could feel that much. For how long, she did not know. As the tears of fear and worry poured silently down her face, her mind raced through things she could do. They settled on John and his healing Todari tarot card - the Four of Swords. It was the card of respite and long term healing. More importantly, it had healed Sebastian before. This time, it would keep him alive long enough for the Beltane ritual to be performed. If John would give her the card again. Knowing his obsession with collecting the mystical card deck and its particular rules, that was a big if. *** "Sergeant Mueller. I understand that Detective Hauberk is unavailable at this time. Is that correct?" Doctor Mercer barked into the phone. While the Sergeant winced, he kept his voice calm and steady. "Yes, sir. That is correct, sir." "When will he be back?" "I don't know, sir." He bit back the thought, 'It wasn't my turn to watch him, sir.' "Where is he?" "I don't know, sir." Sergeant Mueller did not like Mercer. Not in the least bit and it gave him a small amount of pleasure to thwart the man. Doctor Mercer heaved a sigh of annoyance at the phone. "What do you know, Sergeant?" He spat the man's title out like a threat. "I know that I am second in command, sir, and should you need the SU for duty, I am the person you may talk to at this time. If the matter is personal with Detective Hauberk, I'll leave him a message that it is urgent he get in touch with you." Doctor Mercer made the effort to get control of his emotions. It was hard to do when you had a demi-god breathing down your neck. "This is SU business." Sergeant Mueller felt his stomach tighten. "Then I'm your man, sir. What can we do for you?" "Are you aware of the significance of May 1st?" "There are some things I know of it such as the Christian celebration of May Day and dancing around the May pole; a celebration of spring." He ventured cautiously. "Poppycock. It is a pagan holiday called Beltane. For some, it is the changing of the faerie courts from Winter to Spring or Unseelie to Seelie. For others, it is a fertility rite and I'll have you know that that May pole that those people dance around represents the male phallus. At the end of the rite they partner up and have sex in the fields to ensure a good crop." "Oh." "'Oh.' Indeed, Sergeant. This is a time of ritual and we cannot have that in Kendrick. Most of these rituals are performed outdoors in accordance to old pagan doctrine. Therefore, I am suspending the work on eradicating the gargoyles from the city and for the next five days, I want patrols through the woods, parks and near the lake doubled. Day and night. These rituals cannot be allowed to be performed. They are to be stopped and all participants arrested and held until May 5th." "On what charge?" Sergeant Mueller frowned to himself. "That's up to you. Whatever you choose, but make it stick and make sure we have files for all of these aberrations." "Yes, sir. Is that all?" "Yes. I'll expect daily reports, Sergeant. Make sure Detective Hauberk is aware of this." "Roger that, sir." Sergeant Mueller looked at the phone once Doctor Mercer hung up. He had a bad feeling about this. Also, he knew that David would not be happy. The two of them would have their work cut out protecting the actual innocent citizens of Kendrick while arresting the truly dangerous ritual practitioners in the city who were doing harm with their rituals. *** Karen and John entered Bacchanalia together. He looked troubled, she looked worried. Their minds were on different things. Hers was on Sebastian, now living in a box at The Teller's Fortune with the healing tarot card. That had been John's compromise - he would take on Sebastian rather than give his precious Todari card away again. Karen understood. It hurt a little but as long as Sebastian was safe, she would survive. John was thinking about the mayor of the city and the message he had received from the man's secretary. The message was that they needed to meet but it could not be at City Hall. He would be in touch soon. John did not like the sound of this but, he was glad that Mason had finally gotten to a point where they would speak again. John needed to get the measure of the man before he could trust him again. Juliet was speaking with Lamiel and Susan when Susan noticed the couple enter. She excused herself and came to them. "How's Sebastian?" John and Karen exchanged a look. "He's gone to stone," Karen said. "But, John is helping him. He'll be OK." Susan nodded. "Almost all the young gargoyles are stone now. We're doing our best to collect them before they're destroyed. The SU has declared war on the gargoyles of the city and we don't know why." "Most of the SU." Karen said, looking at John. "Yes, most of them." Susan agreed. "If we... you all... get your ritual off, we'll have more allies. I don't understand it but this Beltane May Day ritual is going to help the Grey Lady." "It's a faerie thing, I think. If I understand it, I'm guessing the Grey Lady is of the Fey. It makes sense in retrospect." John said. Susan nodded. "We have a plan. We just need a safe place. Juliet almost got arrested a couple months back for doing a ritual out in the open. A cop let her and the rest go but warned them not to be caught again." "Why don't you all see if the Makah will allow the ritual on their land? The Grey Lady said that she's safe there." Susan tilted her head. "I'll see. I think the Bacchanalia Coven's beliefs are compatible with the Makah tribe." She walked over to Juliet and Lamiel to discuss the matter. John and Karen waited while she did so. Karen's heart sank when both Juliet and Lamiel shook their heads. Susan beckoned the couple over. "We can't do our ritual on Makah land. It would be disrespectful to their beliefs." Lamiel said. "Also, there are no sacred places to me and mine there. It would lessen the power of the ritual and from the dreams some of us have been having, if we want to help the Grey Lady and hers, we need all the power we can get." "However," Juliet said, "there is a sacred place near Makah land. Near enough that should we be interrupted, we could claim it is Makah land. We would need someone from the Makah there to back us up. They wouldn't need to participate unless they wanted to." She paused. "It is near where that cop kept us from being caught by the rest of his team." "Which cop?" Karen asked. "Hauberk was his last name. I don't know him." John and Karen exchanged a glance. "I do," she said. "That might be a better place for the ritual then. Will you allow us to be there?" It was Juliet and Lamiel's turn to exchange a glance. "Only if you are there to support us." Lamiel answered. "As the representative to the Master of the City, yes, I would be there to support you and yours." Karen said. "I concur." Reginald's voice murmured to her from her Bluetooth earpiece. Lamiel smiled, "Then, as the Master of the City's representative, we would welcome you to our Beltane ritual." Karen did not smile but nodded. "I will lend what power I have. This city and its denizens must be protected from what is happening." *** "I didn't understand then why you put Doctor Mercer in charge of the Special Unit back then and I still don't. I had bad feelings about having a civilian like him in-between the SU and the man who created the SU to protect Kendrick." David said, locking eyes with the mayor of Kendrick. Now that he had the man's attention, he was going to go all the way with this. "I don't really need to know but there are things about him that you must know." Mason nodded, listening to him with polite concern. Inside, he was pleased that David was here. The detective was an integral part of his plan to save Kendrick from what ailed it. "Such as?" "Doctor Mercer is not his own man." "Meaning...?" David paused, choosing which bit of information to give the mayor first, "He's spirit-ridden. Something possesses him. He doesn't know it." Mason leaned forward. This was news to him. Then again, it had been months since he had spoken to the man in person. He had been so distracted with Vicki and the family. "How do you know this? Can you see now?" He shook his head. "No, sir. I can't see it. One of the Brotherhood of Light saw it and told me." "Which one?" David paused. "I'd rather not say." "Why not?" "Because of my other news. Your daughter, Victoria, has been seen with Doctor Mercer several times." Mason nodded. "And you don't know if you can trust me now." David did not respond. Mason shook his head with a brief smile. "You're risking a lot to come here to me with this." "I think it's worth the risk, sir." "You're right. Victoria has a lot to do with what's going on." He looked away from David. "You might say that she's in charge right now. There's little I can do about it." Then he looked at David, "Or so I thought." "How is she in charge? She's just a girl." Mason's face soothed itself over into a neutral mask. "She is, as you might say, spirit-ridden, too. She is not exactly herself and hasn't been since I became aware of her." "I don't understand." David frowned, then suddenly remembered where he knew Vicki from. "The Children of Anu." He looked at Mason in wonder. Mason nodded. "She is Victoria, the bastard daughter I never knew and she is Anu or the avatar of Anu. I'm not certain. She's powerful. That much I do know." He paused. "But, the city needs help and here you are." "What do you want me to do?" David wanted to believe that Mason was on his side and the side of right. He really did but he could not believe blindly. Not anymore. The mayor heard the suspicion in the younger man's voice and sighed. He had brought this on himself. "The city wants me to help it by helping Karen Wilson. You're still in contact with her?" "I can contact her if needed but Doctor Mercer forbade it." David admitted cautiously. Mason jerked his hand in a dismissive gesture. "I'm putting you between a rock and a hard place. I know it and I want you to know it, too. You need to help Karen with what she's doing while allaying the suspicions of Doctor Mercer and your own team members. From the outside, you need to appear to be as normal and loyal as ever. But, you need to help Karen with whatever she is doing. In the meantime, I need to distract and confuse Vicki as much as possible. What she's doing is destroying the city." Status quo, in other words, David thought. "How do you know this?" Mason shrugged. "The city told me so. Now I'm telling you. You'll have to start with saving the gargoyles. Though, I'm not sure how." An image of Vicki with the stone from Doctor Mercer's office safe flashed through his mind. "I'll figure out a way, sir." "Good. We're both tied with one arm behind our backs but together, we might just get out of this." *** Sergeant John Mueller pressed the button on his shoulder two-way radio. "Base, this is Charlie-Echo-Delta, reporting in. Over." "Copy that Charlie-Echo-Delta. What's your status? Over." "Sectors Alpha-Alpha through Alpha-Delta clear. One anomaly in sector Alpha-Echo. Over." Sergeant Mueller glanced over his shoulder and into the glade hidden within the thick forest of trees. "Describe anomaly. Over" "Old signs of previous ritual. I'm going to watch the area to make sure there are no repeat customers here tonight. Over." "Do you want back-up, Sergeant? Over." He shook his head. "No, sir. We're thin spread enough as is. If there's something I can't handle, I'll radio in. Over." "Roger that. Over and out." Sergeant Mueller turned back to the glade from his hidden vantage point. Within it stood a good sixteen to eighteen people. Most he was only passing familiar with from their records in the S.U. database. The rest he knew very well. In particular were Susan Moore, John Corso and Karen Wilson. David had called earlier and told him that they were circumventing Doctor Mercer to protect and assist Karen Wilson and her endeavors. David had also indicated that this order came from above him which made things very interesting indeed. "I hope to God I'm on the right side in all this." He muttered as he watched the ritual begin. Interestingly enough, an old man dressed in Makah traditional dress stood off to the side, watching the ritual as well. If he had it right, there were at least three supernatural groups working together on this one ritual. That meant it would be a big one. Part of him wished he could understand it all better. While he scanned the glade from left to right, his heart gave a leap. The old man seemed to be looking right at him or his hiding spot. That's not possible, Sergeant Mueller thought. There's no way he can see me. "Whoo?" inquired a voice from above. Sergeant Mueller looked up and saw a small owl looking down at him. "Whoo?" the owl asked again. "I'm OK." Sergeant Mueller said, feeling silly talking to the bird. "Tell your boss man I'm here protecting the ritual. Tell him that David sent me to protect Karen and what she's doing." The owl looked away. Sergeant Mueller looked back at the ritual going on in the glade. His eyes found the old Makah man again. He could have sworn that the old man nodded once in his direction before turning away. Please, God, let me be on the right side. Please. I want to do what's right, Sergeant Mueller prayed silently. *** Elsewhere... Mason and Vicki were in his study at the Steward estate. The rest of the family tended to stay away from Mason's strange bastard daughter. They could all sense something alien about her. This left her lonely when she decided to stay at the estate instead of the warehouse with the rest of the Children - who also treated her with respect but kept her at arm's length. The sixteen year old girl in her despised being alone. But, there seemed to be no other recourse. At the moment, she and Mason had a chess game going on. It was his move. She knew she would checkmate him within five moves. It was no fun. He was not a very good chess player. Either that, or he was letting her win. That thought angered her. She needed no pyrrhic victories. She turned to say something to him but saw him watching her with a look she had not seen on his face before - one of speculation. "What?" "I was wondering how the Children of Anu worship you. What offerings they make and such." "Why?" "Curiosity, I suppose. You're still my daughter even if you're also the living embodiment of a god." Vicki, about to snap back something about him becoming the Children's next sacrifice, was suddenly doubled over in pain. Something was wrong, very wrong. She felt power draining from her, weakening her. A low moan escaped her lips. "Vicki?" Mason was standing now. "Are you all right?" She straightened up and hid the pain the movement cost her. "Yeah, I'm fine. It's just cramps. I'm a woman you know." Her voice was sharper than intended. "Do you want me to get you some tea or something?" He seemed unsure of what to do. She nodded. "Sure." She agreed only to get him out of her hair for the moment. She could not let him see that she was in actual pain. She waited until he left before sinking to the floor in a ball and pulled out her phone to call Doctor Mercer. Someone was asleep at the wheel and it had better not be him.
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| Last updated on 8/12/2008 11:45:32 AM by Jennifer Brozek |
| Return to the Library. Go to Kendrick 2008. |
| Other documents at this level: 25 - Shades of Grey 26 - Broken 27 - Keystones 28 - Observations 30 - Entropy 31 - The Past and Present Collide 32 - Absorption 33 - Candle Flame 34 - The Cost of Redemption 35 - Breaking Point |
Karen.