Rune Gate Cycle: Omnibus, page 1
Contents
Full Chapter by Chapter Index
A word on language and pronunciation
Free Starter Library
Rune Gate: Rune Gate Cycle 1
Part I
Part II
Part II
Chosen: Rune Gate Cycle 2
Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV
Part V
Other titles by this author
About The Author
Copyright
Acknowledgements
Index
A word on language and pronunciation
These books were written and produced in the United Kingdom and use British English language conventions. For example the use of ‘ou’ in the words colour and honour instead of the American spellings: color, honor. Another example would be the interchangeable use of ize and ise in words such as realise or realize.
Sign up for the author’s mailing list to download your FREE starter library.
Click here to get started: http://www.impulsebooks.co.uk
Rune Gate: Rune Gate Cycle 1
1 ~ Murder Most Foul
Alexandra Yorke peered pensively through the windscreen into the night beyond. The radio played something cheerful, but Alex hardly noticed. She glanced at the slip of paper on the passenger seat beside her, but the directions were simple and she remembered them well enough.
Drive southwest on Horse Lake Road to the junction, turn south toward Susanville and keep going for five or six miles to Blake’s Ranch.
She knew the roads and didn’t need a map; she had grown up in Lassen County. Old man Blake’s place was something of a landmark, just as hers was. She rounded another curve in the road and the strobing lights of a half dozen police cruisers came into view. The cars all pointed roughly the same way—up a steep embankment. Alex couldn’t see anyone to direct her in the dark, but the cruisers’ headlights provided a clue. Most of them pointed into the sky where frustrated drivers, unable to mount the embankment, had abandoned the vehicles. Others shone into the wood that Alex assumed was her destination.
Alex pulled her truck, rattling and groaning, off the highway and onto the hard shoulder. She downshifted, gunned the old engine, and with a roar the truck eased up the slope. The rear tyres fought for traction on wet ground and she feared her truck might join the forlorn looking police cruisers, but it was made of sterner stuff. It gained the height of the embankment, wheels spinning all the way, and eased onto the level ground beyond. She grinned and patted the dash affectionately. Her grin died when she remembered why there were so many police vehicles with their strobing lights still whirling atop their roofs like some kind of funfair ride.
There would be no fun here tonight.
Deputy Jennifer Hale had awoken her in the night and asked her to come out here. That had been less than an hour ago. Jenn wouldn’t answer her questions, but that hardly mattered. She knew what it meant being called out like this.
“I should have said no. Why can’t I ever say no?”
She knew why. No matter how it scared her, no matter how unwanted this… this thing inside her was, it was inside her. She couldn’t ignore it; she had tried. The result had been far worse than she could possibly have imagined, and she had a very good imagination—unfortunately. No, nightmares or not, Sheriff bloody Edwards or not, she couldn’t refuse Jenn the help she needed.
Alex parked her truck as close to the scene as she could. Cops stood all round, staring into the trees in silence, and that wasn’t good in her experience. Whatever the trees contained must be bad. No murder was ever good, but there were degrees of bad on the Yorke Scale of Badness. From what she could see, this was going to be about a nine-point-oh on the YSB.
“Shit,” she muttered and tried to calm herself in readiness for what she was going to see, and go on seeing for the next few nights in her dreams.
She opened the door and stepped into a muddy puddle. Perfect. She ignored the cold water flooding into her shoes, and slammed the door of her truck. She always had to slam it to make it stay shut, but this time she wished she’d let Harry take a shot at fixing it the other day. The noise drew everyone’s attention. She frantically tried to shut out the voices bombarding her from every side. The hush was unbroken—no one spoke—yet everyone did. In her mind.
She had known what to expect. Their wants, their needs, their dreams and emotions, battered her defences in an unceasing flood. Like a wave at the beach, it crashed down upon her, drowning her, but she was still there. Like a pillar of rock she endured, ever there, ever strong. It came again but with less power this time. She was stone, hard and unyielding. The third time was almost gentle like a brief surge in the tide welcoming her back. She wasn’t fooled. She didn’t let it touch the real her. She gave it stone. It withdrew into that ocean of background noise that she had lived with since a child of nine had awoken screaming in the night about the bad man. She closed her eyes, took a shuddering breath, and shored up her weakened defences. She was the rock, ever there, ever strong.
She would endure.
“Ma’am?”
Alex opened her eyes to find a baby-faced police officer in a smokey-bear hat watching her. His badge gleamed, and the reflected light flashing in time with the whirling police lights almost mesmerised her. Above his pocket a shiny brass bar tag displayed his name: Meeks.
“No civilians allowed on the scene, ma’am.”
Sheriff bloody Edwards and his stupid games. Her hands fisted deep in her coat pockets. “Jenn… I mean Deputy Hale called me. She asked me to come.”
Meeks frowned. “Hale called you? Why would she… you’re Alex Yorke?”
She nodded.
“I’m sorry, ma’am. I was told not to let you pass. Didn’t you get her message?”
She shook her head. “Tomas told you not to let me pass?”
Meeks nodded. “Sheriff Edwards’ orders, ma’am.”
“Would you let Jenn know I’m here at least, just in case?”
Meeks pursed his lips doubtfully and Alex feared he was about to refuse. That was the excuse she offered herself for what she did next. Even then, she knew it wasn’t much of one, and would berate herself later for giving in to temptation. She opened herself to the web and pushed. His life thread hummed gently in her mind. Meeks froze for a timeless moment.
“He…” Meeks blinked rapidly as her influence hit him. “I can do that, ma’am. Sure. But I don’t think he will let you over there.”
Alex’s polite smile was barely there. “Thank you, Deputy.”
Meeks nodded and with a puzzled frown, he walked away into the trees.
Alex watched him leave, feeling more in control of things and better able to begin what she came here to do. Her eyes surveyed the area, seeing men and women in uniform, but her Sight—the ability that let her perceive things outside most people’s awareness—was a different matter. It showed her multi-coloured threads of light connected to the web of life that was the Earth. If she had been interested, she could have followed it into the trees, across the landscape all the way back to the farm where Katy, her cat, lay in attentive silence before the front door awaiting her return. She paused briefly, letting herself sample the threads of those standing nearby, and the thoughts that inevitably came with her tinkering washed over her.
I hate this god damned waiting…
Edwards couldn’t find his butt with both hands. I could’ve been sheriff if I wanted…
She looks mighty fine…
Alex smiled at the officer when she realised it was her he was thinking of. Compliments were nice even if never voiced aloud.
…for a witch that is. With those eyes and that face, she could have been a model. I’ve seen worse…
Alex scowled. She didn’t like people calling her a witch. Wicca was her religion, not witchcraft, but it was her own fault for being nosy. If she hadn’t wanted to hear what he thought of her, she shouldn’t have been listening. It wasn’t his fault that he couldn’t shield his public mind—few people could—that’s why she had to shield herself from everyone. Murder was an emotive thing. It brought all kinds of thoughts, dreams, and fears out into the open.
All kinds of things.
It’s time to tell her I know she’s pregnant. I’m going to marry her and I ain’t taking no for an answer this time. Oh god, what if she says no? What will I do without her?
Alex moved on, trying to listen only to those thoughts pertaining to the crime. There wasn’t much and that surprised her, but it shouldn’t have. She already knew that whatever lay among the trees was bad. They were all trying their best not to think about it.
Jenn and Tomas were approaching her through the trees. She had known them too long to mistake their life threads. Jenn was upset. Alex could feel it even from here. Tomas felt cold as he always did these days. He was upset too, but in a different way; he was so cold, he burned. Alex flinched when her probe touched him. She pulled back, trying not to let her shock show on her face, but still hearing his thoughts despite her effort to shut him out.
Stone. A stone wall like the one at the old mill. Thick and strong and unbreakable. What if she can still hear me? The wall. Think about the wall dammit! Stone… stone… stone… stone… stone!
She turned to face Tomas, catching him by surprise, and he crashed to a halt before her. Despite his attempt at shutting her out, she had felt him approaching. His thread snagged those around him, trying to draw them in. Wherever he went
“Hello, Tomas.”
“Alex.”
Alex exchanged a nod with Jenn. “I came as soon as you called, Jenn.”
Jenn grimaced and glanced at Tomas. “Yeah, thanks. I’m sorry to bring you out like this. I thought you might be able to help us, but…”
“But?”
Tomas glared at Jenn, but shared it with Alex. “But you’re going home right now. Jenn called you in without my permission. No civilians allowed, and that goes double and triple for you.”
“Tom, she can help!” Jenn protested. It sounded like something she had said more than once tonight. “You know what she can do.”
“I don’t believe in that shit!” Tomas snarled.
Alex laughed. “Then why are you showing me that wall? I’ve seen it before, you know. We used to play there as kids.”
He paled. “Keep out of my mind!”
Alex shrugged. “I’m not in it. I don’t peek, you know that, but if you insist on shouting at me, I can’t help hearing it.”
“I’m not shouting.”
“In your head you are,” she said and sighed. She shouldn’t have to explain this again. He knew about her abilities as much as anyone did. “If you want to hide from me, just don’t think about it. I can’t see what you don’t want me to see.”
Tomas scowled, but he stopped shouting about his damned wall.
It wasn’t strictly true that she couldn’t see what people didn’t want her to see, but it was close enough to the truth to cause her only a twinge of guilt. She never deep scanned, so she could honestly say she only heard what people broadcast publicly to her.
“Fine,” Tomas snapped. “You don’t peek, but you’re still going.”
“Okay.”
“Okay?” he said suspiciously. “Just okay?”
“Sure. You don’t want me here. I don’t want me here. Believe me when I say I don’t need more nightmares. When the next body turns up, you can call me. Better yet, don’t call me. I really don’t need another corpse in my head.”
Alex turned away, not listening as Jenn tried to reason with him. She climbed into the truck and started the engine then looked over her shoulder, preparing to reverse back to the highway.
Tomas knocked on her window.
Alex revved the engine and started backing. He slapped her window, hard enough to make it rattle in the frame. Damn, she should have moved faster. She rolled the window down still revving the engine in annoyance.
“Alex, I don’t want you here—”
She revved the engine again.
“—you don’t want to see it, believe me!” Tomas shouted over the noise.
“I can’t hear you!” she yelled, revving the engine again.
“Turn the damn motor off!”
“What?”
Tomas reached through the window for the keys and the motor died. “I said turn that damn thing off and listen to me! You haven’t changed at all have you? All this time in the big city and you’re still the arrogant little bitch you always were. You still think the world can’t touch you. Well you’re wrong, dammit!”
“You finished?” Alex said coldly and reached for the keys.
Tomas grabbed her hand.
She flinched, trying to block him out, but the contact created a bridge between them. She saw a face crying tears of blood, a huge tree looming over her in the shadows, and blood… so much blood on the ground. Worse than those grisly and disjointed images, she saw again the night she told him what she was, what she could do. She saw again his fear and felt her despair when he rejected her. Tomas’ face paled as he relived that night with her.
Alex wrenched her hand free. “Don’t touch me!” she screamed. “Don’t ever touch me!” She panted, her senses reeling. Tomas had breached her defences so easily it left her dizzy and sick. She forced her thoughts back to the pillar of rock. Tomas’ thoughts slammed against it, but she was stone—hard and unyielding. Ever there, ever strong. “Don’t ever touch me again,” she whispered.
“My god. That was… you were…” Tomas took a deep breath and stilled his shaking. “What’s happened to you? It’s gotten worse, hasn’t it?”
“What would you know about it?” she said, spitting the words in his face.
Tomas’ face darkened. “Nothing. Only that never happened when we… when we made love.”
“Didn’t it? I can’t remember.”
His lips tightened and he looked away, unable to meet her eyes.
She felt warmed and savagely pleased by his reaction. She wanted him hurt. If there were any justice in the world, her lie would have hurt him as much as he had hurt her. He broke her heart all those years ago, broke it so badly she had been celibate ever since, not daring to risk herself again.
Tomas sighed and muttered something under his breath. “I didn’t want you here, Alex. I still don’t, but Jenn’s right. I do need you. I hate it, but I need what you can do.”
Alex squeezed her eyes shut. She should leave. She was unsettled and his touch had weakened her defences. She should leave, but she knew she wouldn’t. The next one to die would be her fault if she didn’t do all she could here. She reached to open the door, but Tomas opened it for her. She stepped out of the truck and found herself being watched again, all eyes were turned her way. They had heard her scream at their sheriff, and although they didn’t know what it was about, they were speculating freely. She shook her head tiredly when she realised that most of them thought it was a lover’s quarrel. Sometimes it felt like everyone in the county knew they had once been an item.
“It’s this way,” Tomas said, reaching for her arm.
Alex flinched back and nearly fell in her haste to get away.
Tomas lowered his hand slowly to his side. She sidestepped him and made for the tree line. There was a short silence and then two pairs of feet following—Jenn and Tomas.
Alex walked into the trees a short way, then turned to her friend. “You know, Jenn, I was surprised when you told me where to meet you.”
Jenn cocked her head to one side. “Why?”
“Aren’t we out of your jurisdiction?”
Jenn shook her head.
“We have joint jurisdiction with State,” Tomas said. “Have done for two years now. Alice… the Mayor helped push it through.”
“Yeah?”
Tomas nodded. “A lot’s happened since you’ve been gone, Alex. Anyway, Blake called us so this one’s all ours. I have to keep the staties informed, but that’s no hardship. I just fax a report once a week and they do the same for me about their cases. It works. If I need their help on something or vice-versa there’s always the phone.”
“Sounds refreshing,” Alex said mockingly.
Tomas frowned. “Refreshing?”
“No pissing contests.”
Jenn chuckled, but sobered quickly. “We got the call a couple of hours ago. Old man Blake said he saw a light through the trees. Thought it might be a trespasser. You know how he is.”
Alex nodded. “A couple of hours and you’re still out here?”
Jenn shrugged. “I couldn’t find anything at first.”
“You were the first on scene?”
“Yeah. I talked to Blake to see what he knew, and then came out here to check his fences. It was so dark that I didn’t expect to find anything. Blake said he saw a light in the trees, but it was gone when I got here. I scouted around and found… it.”
“Man or woman?” Alex asked, stepping carefully over tree roots.
“Woman,” Jenn said using a tree to steady herself as she navigated the same roots.
“Anyone missing from town?”
“Thank god, no,” Tomas said like a prayer. “She’s not local, just passing through would be my guess. I have someone checking the motels and guest houses. We won’t know much until tomorrow or the next day.”
Alex pursed her lips. Nothing they had said told her why she was here. “I don’t usually get called in unless something is seriously weird…” She stopped when she saw it. “Oh.”
“Yeah,” they said together.
