Love Is The Bond: A Rowan Gant Investigation (23 page)

“How about, because I don’t have enough bail
money with me,” I returned, having grown tired of trying to calmly
explain the downfalls of her behavior to her.

I had barely managed to extract my wife from
the confrontation in time to avoid her seeing the world from the
back seat of a squad car. After a somewhat embarrassing moment or
two, I got her into the passenger seat of her Jeep, and we were on
our way. That had been better than ten minutes ago, and she still
hadn’t stopped complaining. In fact, she had only gotten worse.

“He wouldn’t have dared arrest me,” she shot
back with a haughty air.

“Yeah? Well, I wouldn’t count on it. If I had
been him, I would have seriously considered the use of excessive
force.”

“Bullshit.”

I ignored the blatant curse, although I
thought it odd that she didn’t use Gaelic, as that was her normal
language for swearing. Even so, she did occasionally let loose with
an American obscenity, so I allowed the curiosity at her choice of
words to die on the vine.

“Besides, Albright was going to be there at
any minute,” I added.

I knew that even if the officer she was
tangling with were willing to forgive and forget, Albright would
jump at the chance to toss my wife into a cell. Considering some of
their past altercations, I almost believed she hated Felicity even
more than she did me.

“Screw that bitch,” she spat in a dismissive
tone.

That was epithet number two she had spoken
without resorting to her Celtic tongue. The curiosity was suddenly
resurrected.

“He was enjoying it almost as much as I was,”
she continued. “Then, you had to interrupt.”

“Excuse me?”

“He was getting off,” she stated in no
uncertain terms. “So was I. You ruined my fun.”

Now I noticed something else that was
peculiar. Even at her most rested and lucid, Felicity had a mild
lilt in her voice that betrayed her Irish heritage. But, at this
moment in time, that lilt was completely gone, and in fact had been
usurped by a slight, but still noticeable, Southern affectation. On
top of that, the tone itself had changed; enough so that if I’d
been blindfolded, I wouldn’t identify the voice as my wife’s.

“You need to ground,” I instructed. “Right
now.”

“I’m grounded.”

“No you aren’t.”

“Hmph.” She tossed her head and shot me a
flat gaze. “And just how do you know that I’m not?”

“Easy,” I replied. “You aren’t even you right
now.”

“Of course I am.”

“No. No you aren’t. Listen to yourself.”

“Listen to myself what?”

“Your voice,” I insisted. “It’s changed. It’s
not even yours.”

“All right. Then who am I?”

“That’s what I’d like to know. So would the
police.”

“And why would the police care?”

“Because, I think that right now you are the
ethereal reflection of a very sick individual who’s killed at least
two men, and I’m sure they’d be all about stopping you… Her…
Whatever.”

“Or, maybe this is just a side of me you’ve
never seen.”

“No.” I shook my head. “Even if you could
explain away everything else, my wife wouldn’t consider it a turn
on to argue with a cop.”

“Maybe I would and you just don’t know
it.”

“Maybe, but I doubt it.”

“All men want to be dominated by a woman,
even you,” she continued unfazed. “It’s the ultimate fantasy of
your gender and you know it. It’s as it should be.”

“Role playing is one thing,” I replied.
“You’re taking it past that line.”

“That’s because I’m not playing,” she
retorted. “I’m serious.”

“I know. That’s another thing that tells me
you aren’t yourself at the moment.”

“Like I said, then who am I?”

“You tell me.”

“Guess.”

“We don’t have time for this, Felicity.”

“Wrong.”

“Wrong what?”

“Felicity. Wrong. Not my name.”

“Okay, so I’m correct. You’re channeling
someone.”

“Wouldn’t you like to know,” she teased.

“Felicity, stop it right now! Ground and
center, please.”

“Oh, okay, you’re right. I’m not myself right
now. Would you really like to know who I am?”

“Yes.”

“You, little man, may call me, Mistress,” she
replied. “Go ahead, say it. Yes, Mistress.”

I didn’t reply.

Everything caught up with me all at once. My
head still hadn’t stopped aching, Agent Drew had been a major
annoyance, even Ben was moodier than ever, and those were just for
starters. Now, on top of it all, my wife was being driven by an
unnatural connection with an insane individual, and she was using
me for a practice dummy.

A hard sting suddenly ripped through my jaw
as the back of Felicity’s hand struck my face.

“I told you to say ‘yes mistress’, little
man. Now do it!”

In that single moment, I’d had my fill.

I looked to the right and noticed a
convenience store on the opposite corner of the intersection we
were approaching. Instead of continuing through toward home, I
immediately downshifted the vehicle and hooked it into the parking
lot. The turn was so abrupt that the tires screeched as they
skidded against the pavement, and Felicity was pitched sideways
against the safety harness.

“What the hell are you doing!” she
demanded.

I didn’t respond; instead, I jammed the shift
lever hard into gear and gunned the engine. We shot across the
paved expanse and came to a halt between the worn lines of a
parking space at the front of the building. I shut off the engine
and climbed quickly out of the vehicle.

“You answer me dammit!” Felicity barked once
again, the Southern drawl becoming thicker by the moment.

I slammed the door and stalked around the
front of the Jeep to the passenger side then yanked her door open.
Reaching in, I popped the catch on her seatbelt and pulled it
free.

“Get out,” I told her.

“I said answer me!” she ordered yet
again.

I remained silent, my features set with grim
determination. I wasn’t certain how I was going to handle this, but
something told me I needed to get her physically in touch with
something earthbound, and the Jeep wasn’t it.

“Get out,” I said again, trying to remain
calm.

“I will not!” she retorted.

At this rate things were going to turn ugly
very fast. I sighed then reached in, taking her by the wrist and
forming an instant connection. If she wasn’t going to get out then
I would just use myself as a conduit. The moment I touched her, I
could feel a hot surge of energy coursing through her body. Its
tendrils began to reach into me almost immediately. I seized on
them and started to force every ounce I could through to the ground
beneath my feet.

In a flash the open palm of Felicity’s free
hand swung toward my face once again. Fortunately, I saw the motion
from the corner of my eye, and I reached up to catch her hand
mid-flight. I stood there for a moment, locked in a staring contest
with her as I struggled to ground out whatever she was
channeling.

The look that filled her jade green eyes was
at once foreign and familiar to me. The obvious contempt that
burned deeply behind them was something I had never experienced
from her before. The almost involuntary droop of her eyelids,
however, was something I had seen before, and I knew exactly what
it signaled. She was cycling through an ever-heightening state of
arousal, and it was being fed by her own high-handedness.

As quickly as the entity had attempted to
invade my body, it began to recede, curling back into my wife and
assuming what I could only describe as a defensive posture. Whether
it was the energy or Felicity herself doing it, I couldn’t be sure;
but one or both of them knew exactly what I was trying to do, and I
was now being shut out.

I tried to reach into her, to renew the
connection, but it wasn’t long before I realized that as hard as I
was trying to ground, she was trying to resist. It was almost as if
she had become addicted to the stimulation, and she was unwilling
to give it up.

I was going to need some help.

I raced through ideas as quickly as I could,
discarding each as I hit upon reasons they wouldn’t work. When I
was almost certain I had exhausted my options, I stumbled on to a
thought. I was going to have to come at this from the inside, and I
thought I just might know how to do it. I just needed to go into
the store and get a couple of things first.

I considered leaving Felicity in the vehicle
but something told me that wasn’t the best idea.

“Come on,” I told her. “We need to go inside
and get something.”

“What thing?” she demanded.

“Some thing,” I repeated with split emphasis
on the syllables.

She stared at me for a moment as if she were
trying to read my mind. If the look on her face was any indication,
she just may have succeeded.

“No,” she snapped.

“Yes.”

“I said, NO,” she replied coolly then
followed with, “Now, get back in the car and drive me home this
instant, and maybe, just maybe I’ll take that into consideration
when I punish you.”

If it weren’t for the fact that I could tell
she was deadly serious, her comment would have been comical. What
was worse, her rampant arousal was beginning to affect me as well.
Whatever it was that she was giving off—energy, pheromones, or
something else that I’d yet to figure out, she was actually getting
to me. I could feel a rush of excitement welling in me, and for a
moment I found myself considering the idea of obeying her without
question.

Fortunately, I was still in control of my
faculties. I managed to shake off the feeling then bolstered my
shields against the onslaught and jerked her from the seat. Taking
hold of her upper arm, I guided her out of the way and swung the
door shut. I then thumbed the key fob to lock the vehicle and with
a moderate nudge aimed her toward the entrance. She stumbled for a
moment then dug in and resisted.

“Dammit,” she growled. “Just what do you
think you’re doing?!”

“Taming the shrew,” I spat. “Now be quiet and
try not to make a scene for a change.”

“You need to learn who is in charge
here!”

“Right now? Me.”

“Fuck you.”

I pulled hard and set her into motion once
again. “No thanks. Believe me, I’m feeling sufficiently screwed
right now as it is.”

I guided the still fuming redhead through the
door and down the aisles toward the wall of drink coolers. We had
already attracted some unwanted attention, but luckily the store
was sparsely occupied with only a single visible clerk and a pair
of patrons, so it pretty much amounted to hateful glances cast in
my direction. Of course, if they only knew the reality then maybe
they would be aiming them at her, but right now I didn’t care. I
just wanted my wife back.

I continued to hold her arm as we strolled
along the cooler aisle, my eyes searching. I finally spied what I
was after, and we came to a halt in front of the second door from
the end. I tugged it open, reached in and retrieved a bottle of
water.

Whoever was in control of Felicity seized
that moment to shove the door hard against my shoulder and knock me
off balance. While I didn’t fall, I did stumble momentarily and
lost my grip on her arm. Instead of running, however, she planted
herself firmly, and as I twisted back to her, she brought her knee
up toward my crotch. I managed to react quickly enough to continue
my turn and sidestep her by a scant few inches, removing the
intended target from harm’s way. Still, I wasn’t completely out of
her aim, and she landed her knee hard against my thigh. The force
of the blow caused me to stumble back again. Apparently
dissatisfied with the result, she jacked her leg back and thrust it
forward again, connecting the toe of her shoe against my kneecap
with a resounding pop. The joint buckled, and I went down into a
kneeling position, yelping as the pain bit into my leg a second
time.

I gritted my teeth and scrambled up to my
feet as I turned toward her. Stepping back, I pushed the door the
rest of the way shut then fixed her with a hard gaze and sighed as
I mentally reminded myself that someone else was controlling her
actions.

She cocked herself into a defiant pose and
placed her hands on her hips then stared back at me with a much
more than contented smile on her lips. Giving her head an imperious
toss, she leveled her gaze back on me and purred, “I really enjoyed
that, how about you?”

“Not so much,” I retorted then limped forward
to take hold of her arm and pulled her toward the checkout,
stopping briefly at the snack counter where stainless steel bins of
condiments resided. I set the bottle on the counter momentarily,
snatched up a handful of salt packets and shoved them into my
pocket, then grabbed the bottle and continued on to the
checkout.

The young girl behind the counter frowned and
gave me a hard stare then looked over at Felicity and said, “Is
everything okay, ma’am?”

My wife smiled sweetly and drawled, “Oh,
don’t worry, honey. He’s being a little unruly, but I’ll be
punishing him for it soon enough.”

I didn’t comment. I set the water in front of
the register and withdrew my wallet, then tossed a five onto the
counter. Quickly stuffing the billfold back into my pocket, I took
the water and tugged Felicity toward the exit.

“Don’t you want your change?” the clerk
asked.

“Keep it,” I snapped without looking
back.

Before the door could swing shut, I was
certain I heard her call me an asshole.

I wasn’t at all certain that what I was about
to try would even come close to working. The fact was that since my
grand plan was an arbitrarily chosen bit of Magick from an
unrelated ritual, it probably stood a good chance of falling flat.
While I wasn’t unfamiliar with SpellCraft, by any means, the truth
was that this sort of thing was really Felicity’s area of
expertise, not mine. Given what had transpired over the last
several minutes, however, I figured it was a safe bet that she
wasn’t going to be giving me any help. Since this was all that I
could think of at the moment, it would simply have to do. At least
the components and intent were both aimed at grounding and
cleansing, so at the very least it couldn’t do any harm.