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WITCH HUNT
By
Leanne Karella & Vivienne King
© copyright March 2006, Leanne Karella & Vivienne King
Cover art by Dan Skinner, © copyright March 2006
ISBN 1-58608-861-0
New Concepts Publishing
Lake Park, GA 31636
www.newconceptspublishing.com
This is a work of fiction. All characters, events, and places are of the author's imagination and not to be confused with fact. Any resemblance to living persons or events is merely coincidence.
Prologue
From the Journal of Lina Brennen:
When I was a child, all I dreamed about was being normal. And now that I'm adult? Yeah, that's still my biggest dream.
* * * *
"Well, Granna, it's time to move on again. The villagers are getting restless. If I don't leave now, they'll be coming after me with pitchforks and sickles."
"Oh, sweetling, this is the twenty-first century. You know they don't do that kind of thing anymore."
After laying another neatly folded pair of slacks into her suitcase, Lina turned toward the chair in the corner of the bedroom to send a good old-fashioned glare at her great-great-grandmother, Merona. Granna's ghostly aura was extra bright today; she was happy they'd be moving on. They'd stayed in Chicago for nearly a year, and Merona had been getting restless. She'd said there was nothing to accomplish in this "barbarous city." She'd used that very term for nearly every big city they'd stayed in.
"How many towns were you chased out of that way?" Lina asked as she went to the closet. She scooped up all the hangers at once and dumped them on the bed to start folding.
"Only a few. Most of the time I left before anyone caught on." Her aura seemed to brighten even more as her sweet round face broke into a cherub-like grin. "You're just so determined to help everyone. When you do that, it's easier to get caught."
Lina wanted to throw all the clothing into the bag without folding it. She hated packing. She hated moving. She just wanted some place to call her own. She'd been on the move for the past fifteen years, and it was getting old. "Jane said I should do what I need to do. Do you think I should have let that little girl suffer when I could help her?"
"Jane was a do-gooder, and you know it." Though Merona's words seemed harsh, Lina knew better. Merona had been proud of her granddaughter, Jane. Just as Lina knew that Merona was proud of her.
The phone rang. It had been ringing non-stop for three days now. Newspaper reporters, television reporters, curiosity seekers. It had happened before. Lina was sure it would happen again in the future. She felt like crying. She felt like raging against this ... this thing she had.
"You are upset."
Well, duh. Why wouldn't she be upset? She'd made it almost a full year without the attention, without the shocked gasps, without the fearful glances thrown at her. She'd found a job in a private school, working in the office. It had been a dream fulfilled. She could be around the children but not have close contact with them. She could watch them from afar, dream her dreams. Oh, how she longed for a child of her own!
But that was not to be.
To have a child of her own, she needed a man of her own. The man. Like she'd ever find him.
Merona's pale face wrinkled into a frown as she rose from her post in the corner of the room and came toward the bed. "What is floating around in that head of yours, child?"
Lina scowled at Merona as she stuffed the corners of her suitcase haphazardly with T-shirts to fill in the space. "Oh, Granna." Lina sighed as she threw down the shirt she'd wadded into a ball and turned toward the window, folding her arms around herself for comfort. She so wanted someone else's arms around her. Anyone's. Someone to make her feel ... "I want a home, Granna. A home and a husband and a child of my very own. Why can't I have one? You did. Granna Jane did. Why am I so different?"
Lina felt the cool brush of air on her hair and knew Merona was trying to comfort her. "You will have all your wishes fulfilled, my darling child. In your own time. You cannot rush true love. It must find you. And then, my sweet Lina, all your dreams will come true."
Granna Merona had been saying those same words to her all of her adult life. At thirty-two, she was beginning to doubt them.
"Now, sweetling, it is time to dig out that great map of yours and let us find a new place." Merona sat down on the edge of the bed. "A small town this time. This place is ridiculously cold and windy. The weather makes the inhabitants bitchy."
"Small town," Lina mumbled. They'd tried that before. The townsfolk had almost come after her with the pitchforks and sickles. She gave a sigh, pulled the atlas from the top shelf of the closet, and flung it carelessly on the bed next to Merona. "You pick this time, Granna."
With a glittering chuckle, Merona waved her fingers at the atlas and the pages fluttered open. "We've never been to Arizona before."
Arizona it is.
Chapter One
From the journal of Lina Brennen:
My life has been an unending journey of beginnings. Over and over I've started from scratch. New town, new place to live, new job, new life. Just for once, would it be possible find something permanent? Happily ever after can't only be in the storybooks. I want mine.
A home of my own. Two point three kids. White picket fence. And a man with sparkling eyes, a charming smile, and a voice to make a woman melt.
* * * *
Lina clicked on the stereo in her '91 Ford Escort, about the only thing in the car that still ran with no problems. Saguaro cacti and red rock flashed by her windshield in a kaleidoscope of desert scenery. A mirage of water shimmered just inches above the melting blacktop road.
The closer she got to the borders of Mexico, the more Tejano music she was forced to listen to. The romantic melodies of the Spanish guitar filled the car. She wrinkled her nose and switched the station. Tejano music was something she could only take in spurts.
A grin spread across her face and her hand stilled when the sultry sound of Marvin Gaye crooned in her ear. She shifted in her seat, singing along to Sexual Healing.
"I want sexual heal ... ing." Throaty laughter spilled from her lips at the sound of her voice breaking. "Oh, jeez, maybe I need to think about not singing."
"Yes, child. I think that might be a good idea." Merona stuck a finger in her ear and grimaced.
Lina narrowed her eyes and stuck out her tongue. "Always a critic."
"No, I just believe in brutal honesty." Her wide blue eyes sparkled with mischief, and her pulsating golden aura flickered with her pent-up laughter.
"Gee, thanks, Granna." She smiled and shook her head. "So, you suggested Arizona. We're here. What now?" Lina ran her hand across her forehead, wiping away the beads of sweat prickling uncomfortably on her brow. The soft sound of her tinkling golden bracelets jangled with the movement.
"I'm glad I'm a spirit. You look like you're suffering." Merona's words came out half sympathetic, half teasing.
"Thanks for stating the obvious." She rolled her eyes.
The air conditioning had stopped working. Again. Forcing Lina to roll down the windows. The hot, dry air punched her in the nostrils. She exhaled forcibly.
Lina squirmed to the left, but her thighs didn't follow. She might as well have been super glued to the seat. Her brows scrunched together, and her mouth twisted with disgust.
"Pick a place, Gran. I can't take the heat. I can't take driving in this any longer."
Merona turned and stared out the window. Lina flashed her grandmother a look. She could practically hear the woman's mind clicking with thought. A green highway sign came into view.
Merona cocked her head, her golden aura pulsed brightly, and a grin spread like butter across her gentle features.
"Unegi, Arizona. Ten miles. I like that. My soul likes that." She nodded and shot Lina a look. "That's it. That's our stop."
"Unegi? What kind of name is that? Are you sure, Granna?" Lina honked her horn at a passing SUV.
Merona's eyes widened. "Why did you honk?"
She shrugged. "His bumper sticker said, 'Honk if you love whales.' So, I honked. Boredom made me do it." She shrugged. "Anyhow, why Unegi?"
The turnoff ramp was rapidly approaching, and she wanted Merona's answer before she took that leap of faith.
Her stomach twisted in knots, wondering for the millionth time if maybe, just maybe, this would be her last move. Ever. She'd always dreamed it would happen someday, that she'd never have to pack up again, but that was a fading hope. This made her fifteenth move in seventeen years. And she was only thirty-two. At age seven, she'd come into her powers. That's when her life had become one big move after another.
She cringed at the thought. Powers. I'd give them all up in a heartbeat if I could.
All she'd gained for these so called powers was an inability to trust people, and a loss of her innocence. Damn it all to hell, why? She ground her jaw. Why? Why couldn't she just be normal? She should have three kids by now, a husband and that white picket fence, instead of having to run from state to state like a felon.
Lost in her daydreams, Lina took the turn, finally realizing her grandmother had yet to answer.
"Granna, why haven't you answered me?"
Merona studied her nails and whispered, "It means ugly in one of the many Native American languages."
"What?" Lina slammed on the breaks. The luggage in the back seat and a half eaten bag of chips went flying through the air. "No! No way. You know how I am about signs."
Her grandmother threw her arms up in the air. "Exactly! That's why I didn't tell you. You and your silly signs. Lina," Merona pointed to her chest, "you're going to have to trust me on this. Sometimes the heart knows what the mind does not."
Lina lifted a brow and shook her head. She spotted a gas station to the left. "Absolutely not. I didn't leave Chicago for a town called Ugly. We're going to fill up with gas, and you're going to choose a different place to stop."
Merona pressed her lips tight.
Lina rubbed her right temple, a rising throb of a pain building behind her eyes. She turned on her blinker and headed toward the Chevron.
What was her grandmother thinking?
A bright red pickup and a police cruiser were parked in front of the otherwise deserted gas station and mini-mart.
She snorted, imagining an overweight, doughnut-eating, coffee-drinking cop making his morning rounds. Lina glanced at her watch. Although, it was way past noon. Maybe they ate doughnuts all day. She shrugged. Didn't matter to her. She'd be out of this town, pronto!
Lina sighed and took off her seatbelt. "Granna, don't do anything, oh, I don't know,"--she waved her hands through the air dramatically--"ghostly."
Merona lifted a white brow, her smooth skin tightening into a fierce scowl. "Such as?"
"Don't scare the humans. I'm just going to fill the gas and come back. I love you, Granna. Don't be mad at me." She lifted the corner of her lips into a semi-smile.
"I love you too, sweetling. But we're not leaving."
Lina shook her head. "Whatever you say, Granna." Better to keep Merona happy than to argue a moot point. Lina, after all, was the driver.
She opened the door as dust devils twirled and danced in the distance. The arid landscape was foreboding and unappealing. How could she possibly be happy here? No. Best to move on.
Lina started to stand when her grandmother's cold fingers flitted across her neck in a gentle caress. She turned around.
"Your destiny awaits you. Mind that first step."
Lina's brows drew together and she blinked. "What?"
Merona just smiled.
She shook her head and exited the vehicle. The wind shrieked around her, and her hair whipped against her cheeks, stinging her eyes. Lina frowned, thinking of Merona's words. Her grandmother was wise, very wise. Usually there was some meaning behind her cryptic remarks if Lina took the time to consider them. But she wasn't in the mood right now, and she wanted out of the wailing wind.
She opened her tank and placed the pump in. The price of gas was astronomical. "Friggin' gas prices. What do they think, we're rich or something?" Thank goodness she drove a little car or she'd be completely broke before she found a place to live.
Once it finished pumping, she grabbed her purse from the back seat and ran toward the building, her head bent low to keep the flying dirt out of her eyes. As she pushed on the door, she tripped over the half step and threw out her arms to prevent her fall.
"Oh!" She braced herself for the impact but fell, instead, into the rock-hard arms of a rescuer.
She grabbed a hold of blue sleeves to steady herself, bunching the fabric. Gradually her eyes traveled the length of the arms. They were big. Really big, and muscular. She gulped.
"You okay?" A deep-timbred voice resonated through her veins. She shivered and gave a tiny nod. Her mouth suddenly tasted quite dry.
She stared at his chest. The shirt stretched across well-formed pecs. Her skin prickled. Lina licked her lips and gazed up into the bluest eyes she'd ever seen. They were royal blue, like the sky at sunrise. Black as pitch hair framed his chiseled, heart-stopping face.
That face broke into a grin, his straight white teeth flashing brilliantly against the deep, natural tan of his Native American skin, and she gave a tiny start.
"You gonna just stare at me all day?" He chuckled.
She blinked, heat crept up her neck, and she backed out of his arms. "Oh jeez." She laid her hand against her forehead, her bracelets jangling loudly. "I'm so sorry. I'm such a klutz."
"Hi, Klutz. I'm Sheriff Trent Godfrey. I don't recall ever seeing you around." He stuck out a large, tanned hand. A well-formed hand. Oh hell, she thought, what isn't well formed about this one?
She grinned, the tight knot of nerves slowly unwinding in her gut, and she took his hand in hers. A shock of awareness slid up her arm like an arc of electricity.
His eyes widened a bit. Had he felt it, too? And what was it, exactly, that she'd just felt? This couldn't be normal.
"Stop botherin' that pretty little thing and let her pay for her gas."
Lina forced her gaze away from Mr. Sheriff to study the woman behind the counter. Her gray hair was pulled back in a fluffy bun, and she wore loads of sparkly blue eye shadow. Her lips were a deep coral.
Trent leaned down and whispered, "She's one of the town's busybodies. Good ol' gal." Lina inhaled his spicy scent of sage, wood, and leather. Then he winked at her, and her heart nearly stopped altogether.
He turned away. "All right, Louise, she's coming. Just keep those britches on."
What the hell was happening to her? Lina looked for an escape, but the only way out was through the front door, and she still had to pay for her gas. Her emotions were out of control. She hated being out of control. That's what kept her one step ahead of the pitchforks and sickles. That instinct had saved her hide more than once.
"Well, thanks for the timely rescue," Lina said as she dug in her purse for money.
Trent turned, his blue eyes blazing with ... something. Something she'd never seen in a man's eyes before. Heat. Humor. Maybe a little lust? Her skin tightened as flashes of his naked form sliding along her slick skin exploded in her mind.
"I've yet to hear your name, klutz." He grinned, his square jaw begging for a kiss.
"Le ... Lina." She stammered, unable to get the image of his body out of her mind.
He took the hand she held against her cheek into his. His thumb slid along her knuckles. "That's a beautiful name, LeLina."
She let out a breathy chuckle, only too aware of his flesh against hers.
"You just passing through?"
"Staying," she whispered. Then her eyes widened and she wondered what she'd just done. This wasn't good. Every brain cell she possessed had gone on vacation the moment she stumbled into the sheriff's arms.
He stroked the inside of her wrist, and she shivered.
"Do you know where you're gonna stay?" His peppermint breath caressed her cheek.
"No."
"Perfect." His smile widened. "I've got the perfect place." Two large strides took him to the counter. She stared after him in bewilderment.
"Louise, can I borrow a piece of paper and a pen?"
Louise rolled her eyes. "Do you know how much you look like an excited puppy?" She directed her warm brown gaze to Lina. "Watch this one here, he's a heartbreaker." She handed Trent a pad and pencil.
Lina shifted from foot to foot. Why was she doing this? She could still turn around and leave. So why was the thought too painful to even contemplate? This wasn't normal. Granna's words rang in her ears. Your destiny awaits you ... That wily woman knew something, Lina was sure of it.
The scratching sound of the pencil stopped and Trent turned, a white sheet of paper in his hand. Damn, he was one fine looking man. Lina Brennen was not a woman who fell at men's feet. But she could easily see herself at this one's feet.
"I've got a wonderful place for you...." His smile dissolved and one black eyebrow arched, "...and your husband?"
She snorted. "Nope, don't have one of those."
"Child?"
"Nu-uh, that either." That all too common twinge of sadness bit into her.
His grin returned, the wattage of the smile nearly blinding. Nice straight teeth, she noticed once again.
Louise's big belly laugh broke the silence. "Why don't you just ask her out, son?"
"Give me time." Trent shoved a hand through his hair and gave her a crooked grin. "Give me time." He spoke the words as if for her ears alone.
A warm glow flowed through her.
"Anyhow." He shrugged and handed her the sheet of paper. "Give me an hour so I can fix it up a little, and I'll show you the apartment."
She took the paper and shoved it into her shorts pocket.
He bit his bottom lip, an endearing trait she found charming. His warm hand trailed down her bare arm. "Okay, see you then."
"Yeah."
He exited and that's when it dawned on her how easily she'd given into him. Perplexed and dazed, she went to the counter.
Louise looked out the window. "Don't worry about him, honey. He has that effect on all the girls. He's been trying to rent that apartment for ages."
Lina knew she'd meant the words as consolation, but her heart twisted in response. That was even worse. Was she so hard up to meet a man that the first one she ran into turned her into a blathering idiot? She gritted her teeth. No way! She had a mind of her own and wasn't going to capitulate to him so easily next time.
She grabbed a Butterfinger bar and thwacked it down on the counter.
"Give me that, too."
Louise chuckled. "Oh, yeah. You fell under the Godfrey charm."
Lina paid and left. She tore open the wrapping of her Butterfinger and slid into the car.
Merona's mouth split into a wide grin. "Fine looking man, that one." She fanned herself and leered suggestively as Trent drove away in the police cruiser. "Get that tickle down in your, um, spine, did you?"
She shot her grandmother a droll look and took a big bite of her candy bar. "What the heck happened to me in there?"
"It was meant to be. I told you we were staying."
"Yeah, yeah." Merona was hiding something, and Lina aimed to find out what it was.
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