Woman King (4 page)

“Are you the panther?” I asked, shocked at
the absurdity of my question.

The woman nodded. “You did invite me here,
Olivia. You asked me to come and tell you what I had to say.”

Too stunned for words, I began to question
whether I was losing my mind. All this time I had worried my mother
would be the one to become ill, now it seemed I had it backwards. I
sat motionless for a moment and stared.

“This is your problem, Olivia,” she said.
“I’ve been watching you for several weeks and you haven’t lifted a
finger to help yourself. Get up off the floor. Stand up.”

The woman offered me her hand. I grabbed it
and felt the warm flesh of a human being against my palm.

“How is this possible?” I murmured as I rose.
“Are you really here? I’m not hallucinating?”

“I’m real,” she said. “As real as Stoner
Halbert, only I have come to help you.”

“How do you know about him?” I asked. “How do
you know about me?”

“Your grandmother sent me,” she said. “Bella
chose me to watch over you when you were born. When you ran into
trouble with Stoner, I expected you to summon me, but you do not
practice the old ways of your family. I’ve been forced to appear in
your dreams to get your attention.”

“
Summon you
. I have no idea how to do
that,” I said, my tongue slightly swollen in my mouth. “I had no
idea my grandmother could do that sort of thing. I was drunk and
angry last night. I didn’t know my outburst would result … well,
that it would bring
you
here.”

The woman laughed. “There is a lot about this
world you don’t know, Olivia, and that has put you in harm’s
way.”

I walked slowly to a barstool and sat down.
It was too much. Not for the first time that week, my head was
pounding and I was exhausted. Now there was a strange woman in my
house claiming to be my guardian angel. I couldn’t imagine what
would happen next. I decided to make an espresso, and find out.

“Do you drink coffee?” I asked and then
paused and extended my hand in a way that said
I’d like to call
you by a name
.

“It’s Elsa,” she said. “And tea, please.”

“Elsa,” I repeated back. “I have Earl Grey
and green tea.”

“Earl Grey,” she said, and I began to fix our
drinks.

I set two warm mugs on the counter. Elsa took
the bar stool across from mine and began to sip her tea. She seemed
to savor it more than the normal person would.

“Don’t they have tea where you’re from?”

“It’s been a while since I’ve been called to
your world. I remember now how nice it is to visit.”

“What do you mean, my world? Are you
dead?”

“No, not dead. Unable to move on,” she said
without a trace of sarcasm. “As you may have guessed, I’m not from
this time. But I do live in your century regularly now.”

Perhaps it was the combination of fear and a
raging hangover, but I was unable to keep up the light banter and
decided to put my questions to her. “Why are you here? What have
you been trying to tell me?”

Elsa put down her cup and saucer and turned
to face me. “I came because your grandmother feared what would
happen if you continued to block your gift. Before her death, she
summoned me and told me she had seen a vision in which you were in
danger. She asked me to visit you periodically and ensure you
remain unharmed. For many months I watched and saw nothing out of
the ordinary.”

“And now?”

“Now? You’re in danger. It may have seemed
wise at the time to not use your powers, Olivia, but turning off
your instincts has made you vulnerable. You’re not even trying to
sense when you’re in danger. It’s why Stoner Halbert’s demon picked
you.”

This remark caused me to drop my coffee mug
on the marble counter where it promptly broke into several
pieces.

“I’m sorry, did you say
demon
?”

Elsa sighed. “I can see we will have to start
at the beginning. Your friend Mr. Halbert has been dabbling in
black magic. After his wife ruined him, he sought revenge and
became interested in the occult. He has managed to conjure up a
minor demon that promises him great wealth. The demon has given him
an advantage, a sort of influence…and he is using it against you
and others.”

“Why me?”

Elsa seemed to pause for a moment. “What’s
the expression?
You are a sitting duck
. The Others can see
that you have intentionally blocked off your senses. It makes you
an easy target for their mischief. Halbert’s demon has gone in
search of the most vulnerable. An empath who refuses to listen her
instincts? That is an easy mark.”

“Why should I believe any of this is real or
true?” I asked, now frightened beyond measure. To cover my
feelings, I leaned down to pick up the broken porcelain pieces.

Either I was having a complete mental
breakdown, or there was a spirit guide in my kitchen discussing a
demon. My grandmother had told me stories when I was a child of the
time-walkers who visited her village in Scotland. In her tales,
they brought news of loved ones and warned of impending dangers.
Free to move between the past and the future, these witches were
welcomed cautiously by the villagers and warmly by women like my
grandmother, who had their own gifts. I always thought they were
part of a charming folklore, the stuff packed into books in the
library.

Elsa smiled and set down her teacup. “It’s
nice to see you get angry, Olivia. It’s long overdue, but welcome.
Who do you think I am then, if not someone sent here to help you? I
could have killed you while you were passed out in your kitchen.
And yet, here I am and you’re still alive.”

“That’s my point,” I said. “You could be
anyone. You could be some con artist off the street. Why should I
believe you?”

“How would I know about your gifts if not for
your grandmother?” Elsa asked. “You can try to pretend you’re not
connected to any of this, Olivia, but your grandmother was a great
seer. Your mother is extremely receptive. The fact that you have
ignored your lineage doesn’t erase the connections.”

The mention of my mother sent my head
spinning. Demons. Spirit guides. It was all too much. I knew Elsa
wasn’t a vagrant off the street. Her arrival at the moment I asked
for her could only be connected to my dreams. But I wasn’t ready to
face these facts.

“I’m tired. I think you should leave and come
back another time when I feel up to a discussion,” I said, walking
toward my front door and opening it.

Elsa stared at me, a look of fury in her
eyes. “Do you really think you can avoid me like you’ve avoided
everything else? You asked me to come!”

I nodded. “I didn’t know what I was asking
for. I don’t know why my grandmother sent you, but I don’t need
your help. I will get some rest and fix everything tomorrow.”

“You cannot fight the demon without my help,
Olivia. You need me.”

“That’s exactly my point,” I said as I
ushered her to the stoop. “I don’t intend to fight.”

I shut the door, managed to walk upstairs to
my bedroom, and I started to cry.

“God damn it,” I screamed as I tossed a
pillow across the room. “God
damn
it!” I had asked her to
come, but I truly meant it when I said I didn’t know what I was
asking for. What did I need? An exorcist? A psychiatrist?

My mother and all of her warnings came back
to me. I was hunched over on the edge of my bed sobbing, when my
phone beeped, signaling a text. I picked up my mobile from my
nightstand. There, blinking, was a message from Stoner Halbert. I
glanced at his message:

Olivia, where R U?

Client has asked me 2 B project manager.

I’m up three to nothing, and we’re only in
the second inning.

I threw the phone across the room, feeling
sick to my stomach. I managed to make it to my bathroom before I
began to vomit. Why, why was this happening to me? In all my life I
had never harmed a soul. My only weakness, if you could call it
one, was that I had refused to accept my Gift. I had forsaken my
emotions for logic, relying on the power of reason to solve my
problems. Now though, it seemed that logic could be easily
overpowered by magic, for no reason at all.

I leaned against the edge of my toilet wiping
a cold cloth across my lips. I hadn’t given Halbert my phone
number. I had to suppose my ex-client had turned it over. I felt
trapped inside my house like a mouse in a cage. Would I find him
waiting for me outside one day? Elsa was right. For once, I
couldn’t fix a problem on my own. I needed help. I knew she would
come again if I called her.

“Come back,” I said, more quietly than I
intended as I walked to my bed to lie down. “Please come back.”

I awoke several hours later from a dreamless
sleep. I climbed out of bed slowly and grabbed a robe from a chair
nearby. I walked into the bathroom to look in the mirror. The face
staring back, while worn and puffy, didn’t seem any different. I
had no marks on my body, no bumps, no bruises or scars.

Whatever Halbert was doing to me, it was all
in my mind. I shook my head ruefully. He would drive me crazy if
things continued this way. Normally, I was the queen of calm, never
showing the world if I had a problem. But this much upheaval was
bad for business. I would never be able to keep a poker face in
public now.

I began to panic again, thinking about
Halbert. I sat down on the edge of the tub to calm myself. It was
at that moment, that I heard the sound of the television coming
from the living room downstairs. I hoped it was Elsa, or maybe Lily
had let herself in. I walked downstairs and found Elsa sitting on
the couch, her shoes and socks off, watching a reality TV program
that appeared to center on second marriages and Botox.

“You know, that stuff will kill you,” I said,
relieved that she had returned.

“It’s fascinating,” Elsa said, looking away
from the television screen. “Do people really spend their time
watching this stuff?”

“Yes. Quite a few people; these programs are
very popular.”

Elsa shook her head and clicked off the
program. “It’s no wonder the Council is worried.”

“The Council?”

“Later. It’s too complicated. How are you
feeling?”

“Better, but I have been thinking about what
you said to me. I want to know what’s happening to me and I want
your help.”

“It’s the demon,” Elsa said rising from the
couch. “He is a minor demon of the lowest order. Halbert is not
skilled enough yet in the dark arts to conjure a major demon, but
this one is still a demon. Their job is to harm their caller’s
adversaries.”

“How?” I asked. “Do they use physical
pain?”

Elsa shook her head. “Not this demon. He’s
not designed to cause physical pain; he’s subtler. Have you been
acting odd lately? Acting in ways that are unusual for you?”

I nodded. “When I visited my mother recently,
I told her I didn’t feel like myself.”

“What did she say?”

I was about to admit my mother had been right
about something and it made me uncomfortable. “She said that as
long as I ignored my gift, I wasn’t really myself.”

“She was right. You have cut yourself off
from your true nature and the source of your power. When you do
that, it is very easy for an Other to knock you off balance.”

“What is an ‘Other?’ ”

“An Other is someone like me, or a vampire or
a demon. There are humans, and there are the
Others
.”

“What do you mean knock me off balance?”

“You said it… you don’t feel like
yourself
. Have you been more argumentative? Have you been
over-confident that things will be fine, when in reality they are
getting worse?”

Again, I nodded.

“That’s the demon.”

It was a relief to hear someone tell me I
wasn’t going crazy, or that the events of the last few weeks were
not totally my fault, and yet the joy of reassurance was
overshadowed by her explanation. I was being plagued by a demon? To
hear it described in such dispassionate tones was unsettling.

“Am I under the control of this demon now?” I
asked, afraid to hear the answer.

“Yes and no. There have been moments when the
demon cast spells that made you act badly, or he flummoxed you. And
he is working spells and charms on your clients. How else do you
explain walking away from your work, or that a client asked you to
bring Halbert on your team? But he has not tried to possess you
physically. Once I began to appear in your dreams, I placed a
protective spell on you to limit his manipulations.”

“Why just limit things?” I asked. “Can you
stop this?”

“It all depends on you, Olivia. You were born
with abilities that should make it difficult or impossible for a
demon to target you. You would have known that the emotions you
experienced were not your own. It’s even possible you would have
felt the presence of the Other. We won’t know until we open your
senses and see what kind of gifts you really have.”

I shook my head. “I don’t want to ‘open my
senses,’ ” I said. “I don’t want to feel more emotion. I want your
help to get rid of this demon and go back to work.”

Elsa picked up her shoes and socks and began
to put them on.

“This time
I’m
leaving,” she said.
“It’s obvious that you are not prepared to deal with the situation
and I can’t help someone who won’t help herself. This isn’t a
school project that you can ask your parents to fix. You are a
grown woman in trouble—a trouble only you can make disappear. If
you won’t help yourself, then there is nothing I can do.”

“What happens if you go?”

“More of the same, only minus me in your
dreams,” Elsa said. “Halbert will continue to take what he wants
from you until there is nothing left.”

She used my pride against me, and it worked.
I couldn’t stand the idea of losing my business to him that
way—stripped to the bone, all my clients and past successes
erased.