RoadBlock (9 page)

Wade looked down, avoiding Dagger’s eyes. “It’s part of it.”

Dagger nodded, and embraced him again. “I love you, Wade. You’re like my brother. Don’t ever forget that.” Wade wrapped his arms around Dagger then, and whispered, “I love you, too, Dag.”

Wade’s eyes were shining, but his mother didn’t notice, instead looking at Dagger and saying, “Just some church-crazies, harmless. Come on, I’ll walk you all out.”

Cal sprinted ahead, flinging open the door and jogging down the steps, but he only saw the backs of the two men as they walked briskly around the corner of the block. “Cal, what? You think that was them?”

Barbara looked confused. “Who? The Theodosians? No, that was just a couple of Mormons, they had the matching suits and backpacks…or is that the Jehovah’s Witnesses? Anyway, the Theodosians don’t go door-to-door.”

“Ma, what if they knew we were here? Shit, Cal, do you think my mom is in danger here?”

“No, I don’t think so. I think they want us out. We should leave, now. Thank you again, for everything, Barbara.”

“O-okay. Be careful, all of you.” Her voice had taken on a worried tone, and she gave both Dagger and Wade strong hugs before they left.

Cal was on alert, and kept checking the rearview mirror as they pulled out of Barbara’s neighborhood. Dagger felt his worry, and drove faster than normal towards the other side of town.

Halfway home, Cal looked in the mirror again and muttered, “Shit.”

“What?” Wade turned in his seat, and saw the small blue Fiat, much too close behind them. The two passengers were men, dressed in identical suits. Dagger drove faster, approaching the winding cliff road, but had to slow down for the first turn. When he hit the brakes lightly, the car tailing them hit their bumper, almost skidding them off the road. Dagger recovered the jeep, barely, and Betony squeaked, burying her face in her hands and crouching down into her seat.

Dagger drove as fast as he could, focusing on staying on the road, and keeping ahead of the car behind him. They approached the last straightaway before their cul-de-sac, and Dagger looked to Wade, unsure what to do. The last turn off was just ahead. “What should I do? If I go home, they’ll follow us there! Should I turn off?”

Wade started to say yes, but Cal interrupted. “No. Keep going, we’ll be safe there.”

Dagger wasn’t so sure, but he had no time to think about it as the last possible turn whipped past them. He gritted his teeth and kept driving, hoping Cal was right about the safety of their houses. Cal was half turned in his seat, watching their pursuers. Wade had his arms around Betony, trying to calm her panic. Dagger split his attention between the road ahead and the rear-view mirror.

Dagger went as quickly as he dared, but he knew if he went into the next curve too fast he risked losing control of the jeep on the sandy road. All three men watched as the car behind them built up speed on the short section of straight road, and all three braced for an impact as the car behind them sped closer and closer. Barely ten feet separated the two cars, and Cal could see the expressions on the men’s faces, their cold smirks and narrowed eyes promising a fight. Suddenly, the front end of the Fiat crumpled, as if it hit an invisible wall, sending the back end up into the air. The men’s faces twisted from malice to surprise and fear, and the car flipped up, turning in mid-air and landing with a loud crash, upside-down on the cliff edge.

“Holy shit! Did you see that?”

“
Calvin’s spell
.” Dagger whispered in awe.

“Do you think they’re still alive? Should we call the police?”

“Let’s call from home, we’re almost there.”

Dagger turned into his driveway and Cal jumped out before the car was fully stopped, sprinting back up the street towards the wrecked car. He crouched behind a clump of grasses and watched the vehicle, but it showed no movement. Soon he heard sirens, and an ambulance screamed up the street. Three men raced out, and kneeled by the overturned car, examining the passengers. After only a few moments they drew back, their moods somber and their pace unhurried. One made a call on his radio, and soon a fire truck arrived, followed by a police cruiser. Everyone worked together to extricate the bodies of the two passengers, and zipped them into heavy black bags.

The ambulance left, followed by the fire engine, but the police cars stayed, and soon a van arrived with a photographer and a woman in khaki pants. Cal had seen enough, though, and slipped back into the grasses, jogging back to Dagger’s house.

Cal walked in to find everyone seated around Dagger’s kitchen table, and as he stepped into the room all three leveled angry stares at him.

“What?”

“
Calderon
! You left us, and you’re asking ‘
what’
? We were worried!”

“Sorry, Bet. I had to make sure they weren’t following! Come on, you knew what I was doing.”

Dagger’s eyes were narrowed and he barely kept his voice under control. “Yes, Cal. We knew what you were doing. But think, how would you have felt if I’d run off like that? Or Betony?”

“Uh-” Cal ran his hand over his face. “
Shit
. I’m sorry. I didn’t think about it. I’m really sorry, guys.”

Betony exhaled loudly, and Wade just shook his head, but Dagger was still staring at him, arms folded, eyes drilling into his. Cal walked over and wrapped his arms around him, but Dagger stayed stiff in his embrace. “Please, Dagger,
I’m sorry
. I was safe, I promise.”

“
You’re
the one who keeps warning us about splitting up!”

“I know. I know, you’re right. I won’t do it again.”

Dagger relaxed a little, letting Cal hold him, but he was still angry. Still a little afraid. “What happened to them?”

“They’re both dead.”

They all absorbed this information for a few minutes. Suddenly Betony clapped her hands together once, startling them. “All right. We need to eat something, and then test these charms, and then we need to talk about our next steps. I think we have more food at my house than here. Let’s go.” Betony turned on her heel and walked out the front door. Wade got up and followed, leaving Dagger still trapped in Cal’s arms.

“Dagger. Please don’t be angry.”

“I was afraid, Cal.”

“I know. I’m sorry.” He kissed Dagger’s cheek, then down his neck, trying to soften him. Dagger’s anger faded quickly, but the worry remained. He knew what Cal had done was necessary, and he trusted that he’d stayed hidden, but the terror he’d felt when he thought about losing him was still thrumming through him. Without Cal, they had no chance in this fight. “Just promise me you’ll talk to us first next time, and not just run off. We have to be a team now, okay?”

Cal closed his eyes, “I will. I promise I will. It’s just… all this danger and stress is so unnatural to me, I’m just going on instinct here.”

“I know. Me, too.” Dagger paused, not sure if he should reveal more. But it wasn’t in him to hold back, especially about this. “Cal, I know this sounds crazy, I mean, I’ve only known you two days… I just feel like you’re so important to me already. I guess I sort of panicked when I thought you might be in trouble.”

“I understand. It’s not crazy… well, maybe it is, but I feel the same way. I’m sorry I scared you.”

Dagger nodded and kissed Cal softly, then stepped out of his arms. “Betony’s right, we have to figure this out, and I’m starving. Let’s go over there.”

When Dagger and Cal walked into the kitchen, Betony was stirring something on the stove that smelled of garlic, and Wade was chopping vegetables for a salad. For a moment, they looked like a married couple preparing dinner together, and Cal smiled as a flash of foresight hit him. They
would
be a married couple someday, and they’d be happy, he was certain of it now.

“What can we do to help?”

“Set the table? It’s still going to be a while, but you can get that done. And open a bottle of wine? I put a few in the cabinet.” She gestured with an elbow towards the low built-in cupboards in the dining room. Cal knew that was also where they’d put the placemats, so he followed Dagger in and got to work.

Dagger opened the wine, and when Cal was done with the table he came out and opened a box of crackers and a jar of mixed nuts. He was starving, too. Dinner was ready quickly though, and soon Betony was moving things to the table. They’d made pasta with a simple garlic and mushroom sauce, a big salad, and a few pieces of steak broiled in the oven for Wade and Cal.

They all sat down, but it was several minutes before anyone spoke. “This is
awesome
, Betony. Thank you so much for cooking.”

“No problem, Dagger. Okay, so Cal, did you learn anything new from what Barbara said today?”

“Not much. But I do know now that there is something blocking my foresight. I think Diana’s was blocked, too, from what Barbara said. The Theodosians have some power, for sure. If they have a seer, or if this super-witch is a seer, that might be why. And we can’t rule out the possibility they’ve got charm and spell weavers as well.”

“I wish we knew how many of them there are, or who they are. I feel so
ignorant
. I mean, we didn’t even know who they were today! Barbara didn’t recognize them. I wish there was some way we could identify them when they’re right in front of us, at least.”

“There might be. Maybe we could work a spell?”

Dagger nodded, “A spell is a good plan, but I think we might be able to look them up online.”

“Wouldn’t someone have tried that before?”

“No. Maybe not. I don’t mean like a Google search, I mean searching tax records, real estate, education records. We know a few things about them. They
are
a church, ‘The Church of Theodosius’, which means they operate as a non-profit as far as the state is concerned. They need to have some records. Adelaide probably has that. If we cross check that with some other things we know about them, it might get us somewhere. Like, for instance, they only home-school their kids. We can look up that, maybe get a list of names. They protest at separation of church and state hearings, we can look up the media records, look at photos. It’s a lot of work, but we can try.”

“Dagger, that’s a great idea. We’ll ask Adelaide tomorrow what she knows. And meanwhile, we’ll work on a spell.”

“Betony, will you and Wade start working up a spell while Cal and I clean up?”

Betony smiled and agreed, and soon she and Wade were poring over her collection of spell craft manuals. They had a few ideas and the basic outline for their ritual by the time Cal and Dagger joined them. It took a few hours for their spell plan to come together, and they decided to work it right away, gathering ingredients and bringing everything out to their circle on the cliff.

It was close to midnight when they were done, and they had only the barest hope that the spell would work. With their combined power, it
should
, but it was a new spell, untested, and they had guessed their way through much of it. If it did work, they each would have the power to identify a Theodosian on sight. There was a high probability that anyone that meant them harm in any way, from a pickpocket to a dishonest salesman, would also trigger the internal alarm, but it was the best they could do.

“We still need to test Bet’s charms.” Cal reminded them. They were all exhausted, but they worked together to clear the circle of the remains of their spell-crafting and prepared to join again.

Dagger stood off to the side, within sight but not on the stone patio. Calderon sat in front of his north stone marker, and Betony and Wade sat between the other directions, joining hands. A small fire still burned in the fire bowl from their spell work, and there were candles burning around the circle’s perimeter.

This time, the connection didn’t snap into place as firmly as it had the last time, but they found it easily enough. Dagger held his charm close to his skin and tried, alone, to join the connection. He felt them, but distantly, faintly. He tried to relay a simple message, concentrating on an image of a daisy and pushing it towards them.

In the circle, Betony broke out in a wide grin. “A daisy! Dagger, I see it!” Flowers were the first symbols children learned to focus on in spell work and in ritual, and it had been easy for Dagger to push the image forward. He tried for something different this time, and firmly pressed the number seventy-two into his mind, pushing it along the thin connection.

“Seventy-two.” Wade acknowledged with a nod.

“Okay, send something to me, now.” Dagger tried to keep himself open and receptive, and immediately felt the connection strengthen as the image of a strawberry, an old oak tree, and his bed flashed through his mind. He smiled widely at the pictures they’d chosen. Betony had sent the berry, sweet and comforting. Wade reminded him of their childhood hideout, and Cal suggested they should go to bed, soon.

“All right, I think I should go a little farther away…  I’ll go to one of the houses, and I’ll send a picture of where I am to you. When you have it, come find me.” Dagger jogged to his house, and went into the spare bedroom, which had been his room growing up. He sat on the floor, where he and Wade had played matchbox cars as young boys, and sent a strong image of the space along their connection. He was happy to feel the bond just as strongly here as he had when he was physically closer to the others, and thought it probably didn’t matter how far they were, the charms would work.