The Pagan Stone

“He’s part of the team.” Qui

“So do I.” Layla crouched to gather up the flowers and herbs. “I’m going to put these in water. It just… seems like the right thing to do.”

“It’s been a good day.” Fox took Layla’s hand, brushed his lips over her palm. “I’ve got one thing to say. Who wants cake?”

Fifteen

BECAUSE IT WAS A QUIET PLACE WHERE THE THREE of them could meet in private, Gage and Fox joined Cal in his office in the bowling center. Time was ticking by. Gage could all but feel the days draining away. None of them had seen Twisse, in any form, since the day Gage had shot it. But there had been signs.

The increase in animal attacks, or the bloated bodies of animals on the sides of the road. Unexplained power outages and electrical fires. Tempers grew shorter, it seemed, every day. Accidents increased.

And the dreams became a nightly plague.

“My grandmother and cousin are moving into my parents’ place today,” Cal told them. “Somebody threw a rock through Grand’s next-door-neighbor’s window yesterday. I’m trying to convince them all to move out to the farm, Fox. Safety in numbers. The fact is, the way things are, we’ll need to get those who’re willing out there soon. I know it’s earlier than we thought, I know it’s a lot, but-”

“They’re ready. My mom and dad, my brother and his family, my sister and her guy.” Fox rubbed the back of his neck. “I had a fight with Sage over the phone last night,” he added, speaking of his older sister. “She started talking about making plans to come back, to help. She’s staying in Seattle -pissed at me, but she’s staying. I used the fact that Paula’s pregnant as leverage there.”

“That’s good. Enough of your family’s involved in this. My two sisters are staying where they are, too. People are heading out of town every day. A couple here, a couple there.”

“I stopped by the flower shop yesterday,” Fox told them. “Amy told me she’s closing up the end of the week, taking a couple weeks’ vacation up in Maine. I’ve had three clients cancel appointments for next week. I’m thinking I might just close the office until after this is done.”

“Find out if there’s anything your family needs out at the farm. Supplies, tents. I don’t know.”

“I’m going to head out there later, give them a hand with some of it.”

“You need help?” Gage asked.

“No, we’ve got it covered. I might be late heading back to Cal ’s if that’s where we’ll all bunk tonight. One of you could make sure Layla’s not on her own, and gets there.”

“No problem. Anybody getting any sleep?” Cal asked them, and Gage merely laughed. “Yeah. Me, too.” Cal nudged the bloodstone over the desk. “I took this out of the safe when I got here this morning. I thought maybe if I just sit here, stare at the damn thing, something will come.”

“We’ve got so much going.” Fox pushed to his feet to pace. “I can feel it. Can’t you feel it? We’re right on the edge of it, but we just can’t push over. It seems like it’s all there, all the pieces of it. Except that one.” He picked up the stone. “Except this one. We’ve got it, but we don’t know how the hell to use it.”

“Maybe what we need is a howitzer instead of a hunk of rock.”

With a half smile, Fox turned to Gage. “I’m at the point a howitzer doesn’t sound so bad. But this is what’ll do the bastard. The women are spending nearly every waking hour-which is most of the time these days-trying to find the answer to this hunk of rock. But…”

“We can’t see past that edge,” Cal put in.

“Cybil and I have tried the link-up, but it’s either a really crappy vision, or nothing. That interference, that static the bastard can jam things with. It’s working overtime on blocking us.”

“Yeah, and Qui

“If we can’t take it down…” Gage began.

Fox rolled his eyes. “Here goes our Pollya

“If we can’t take it down,” Gage repeated, “if we know it’s going south, is there a way to get the women clear? To get them out? I know you’ve both thought the same.”

Fox slumped back into a chair. “Yeah.”

“I’ve gone around with it,” Cal admitted. “Even if we could convince them, which I don’t see happening, I don’t see how they’d get out, not if we have to take this stand at the Pagan Stone.”

“I don’t like it.” Fox’s jaw tightened. “But that’s where it has to be. The middle of Hawkins Wood, in the dark. I wish I didn’t know in my gut that it has to be there, that they have to go in there with us. But I do know it. So we can’t let it go south, that’s all.”

IT HAD BEEN EASIER, GAGE ADMITTED, WHEN IT had just been the three of them. He loved his friends, and part of him would die if either of them did. But they’d been in it together since day one. Since minute one, he corrected, as he started downstairs.

It had been easier, too, when the women had first gotten involved. Before any of them really mattered to him. Easier before he’d seen the way Qui

Easier before he’d let himself have feelings for Cybil, because, goddamn it, he had feelings. Messy, irritating, impossible feelings for Cybil. The kind of feelings that pushed him into having thoughts. Messy, irritating, impossible thoughts.

He didn’t want a relationship. He sure as hell didn’t want a long-term relationship. And by God, he didn’t want a long-term relationship that involved plans and promises. He wanted to come and go as he pleased, and that’s just what he did. Except for every seventh year. And so far, so good.

You didn’t mess with a streak.

So the feelings and the thoughts would just have to find another sucker to… infect, he decided.

“Gage.”

He stopped, saw his father at the base of the steps. Perfect, Gage thought, just one more thing to give a shine to his day.

“I know I said I wouldn’t get in your way when you came in to see Cal. And I won’t.”

“You’re standing in it now.”

Bill stepped back, rubbed his hands on the thighs of his work pants. “I just wanted to ask you-I didn’t want to get in the way, so I wanted to ask you…”

“What?”

“Jim Hawkins tells me some of the towners are going to camp out at the O’Dell farm. I thought it might be I could help them out. Haul people and supplies out and such, do runs back and forth when needs be.”

In Gage’s memory his father had spent every Seven skunk drunk upstairs in the apartment. “That’d be up to Brian and Joa

“Yeah. Okay.”

“Why?” Gage demanded as Bill backed away. “Why don’t you just get out?”

“It’s my town, too. I never did anything to help before. I never paid much mind to it, or to what you were doing about it. But I knew. Nobody could get drunk enough not to know.”

“They could use help out at the farm.”

“Okay then. Gage.” Bill winced, rubbed his hands over his face. “I should tell you, I’ve been having dreams. Last few nights, I’ve been having them. It’s like I wake up, but I’m asleep, but it’s like I wake up ’cause I hear your ma out in the kitchen. She’s right there, it’s so real. She’s at the stove cooking di

“Keep going.”

“She talks to me, smiles over. She had some smile, my Cathy. She says: Hey there, Bill, supper’s almost ready. I go on over, like I always did, put my arms around her while her hands are busy at the stove and kiss her neck till she laughs and wiggles away. I can smell her, in the dream, and I can taste…”