"Let's not push then. Are you okay to go on?"
"Yeah. Yeah. " His stomach was still mildly uneasy, but the light-headedness had passed. "We'll be coming to Hester's Pool soon. "
"I know. I'm going to tell you what it looks like before we get there. I'm telling you I've never been there before, not in reality, but I've seen it, and I stood there night before last. There are cattails and wild grass. It's off the path, through some brush and thorny stuff. It was night, so the water looked black. Opaque. Its shape isn't quite round, not really oval. It's more of a fat crescent. There were a lot of rocks. Some more like boulders, some no more than pebbles. She filled her pockets with them-they looked to be about hand-sized or smaller-until her pockets were sagging with the weight. Her hair was cut short, like it'd been hacked at, and her eyes looked mad. "
"Her body didn't stay down, not according to reports. "
"I've read them," Quinn acknowledged. "She was found floating in the pool, which came to bear her name, and because it was suicide, they buried her in unconsecrated ground. Records I've dug up so far don't indicate what happened to the infant daughter she left behind. "
Before replacing the pack, she took out a bag of trail mix. Opened it, offered. Cal shook his head. "There's plenty of bark and twigs around if I get that desperate. "
"This isn't bad. What did your mother pack for you that day?"
"Ham-and-cheese sandwiches, hard-boiled eggs, apple slices, celery and carrot sticks, oatmeal cookies, lemonade. " Remembering made him smile. "Pop-Tarts, snack pack cereal for breakfast. "
"Uppercase M Mom. "
"Yeah, always has been. "
"How long do we date before I meet the parents?"
He considered. "They want me to come for dinner some night soon if you want in. "
"A home-cooked meal by Mom? I'm there. How does she feel about all this?"
"It's hard for them, all of this is hard. And they've never let me down in my life. "
"You're a lucky man, Cal. "
He broke trail, skirting the tangles of blackberry bushes, and following the more narrow and less-trod path. Lump moved on ahead, as if he understood where they were headed. The first glint of the pool brought a chill down his spine. But then, it always did.
Birds still called, and Lump-more by accident than design, flushed a rabbit that ran across the path and into another thicket. Sunlight streamed through the empty branches onto the leaf-carpeted ground. And glinted dully on the brown water of Hester's Pool.
"It looks different during the day," Quinn noted. "Not nearly as ominous. But I'd have to be very young and very hot to want to go splashing around in that. "
"We were both. Fox went in first. We'd snuck out here before to swim, but I'd never much liked it. Who knew what was swimming under there? I always thought Hester's bony hand was going to grab my ankle and pull me under. Then it did. "
Quinn's eyebrows shot up, and when he didn't continue, she sat on one of the rocks. "I'm listening. "
"Fox was messing with me. I was a better swimmer, but he was sneaky. Gage couldn't swim for crap, but he was game. I thought it was Fox again, dunking me, but it was her. I saw her when I went under. Her hair wasn't short the way you saw her. I remember how her hair streamed out. She didn't look like a ghost. She looked like a woman. Girl," he corrected. "I realized when I got older she was just a girl. I couldn't get out fast enough, and I made Fox and Gage get out. They hadn't seen anything. "
"But they believed you. "
"That's what friends do. "
"Did you ever go back in?"
"Twice. But I never saw her again. "
Quinn gave Lump, who wasn't as particular as his master, a handful of trail mix. "It's too damn cold to try now, but come June, I'd like to take a dip and see what happens. " She munched some mix as she looked around. "It's a nice spot, considering. Primitive, but still picturesque. Seems like a great place for three boys to run a little wild. "
She cocked her head. "So do you usually bring your women here on dates?"
"You'd be the first. "
"Really? Is that because they haven't been interested, or you haven't wanted to answer questions pertaining. "
"Both. "
"So I'm breaking molds here, which is one of my favorite hobbies. " Quinn stared out over the water. "She must've been so sad, so horribly sad to believe there was no other way for her. Crazy's a factor, too, but I think she must've been weighed down by sadness and despair before she weighed herself down with rocks. That's what I felt in the dream, and it's what I feel now, sitting here. Her horrible, heavy sadness. Even more than the fear when it raped her. "
She shuddered, rose. "Can we move on? It's too much, sitting here. It's too much. "
It would be worse, he thought. If she felt already, sensed or understood this already, it would be worse. He took her hand to lead her back to the path. Since, at least for the moment, it was wide enough to walk abreast, he kept ahold of her hand. It almost seemed as if they were taking a simple walk in the winter woods.
"Tell me something surprising about you. Something I'd never guess. "
He cocked his head. "Why would I tell you something about me you'd never guess?"
"It doesn't have to be some dark secret. " She bumped her hip against his. "Just something unexpected. "
"I lettered in track and field. "
Quinn shook her head. "Impressive, but not surprising. I might've guessed that. You've got a yard or so of leg. "
"All right, all right. " He thought it over. "I grew a pumpkin that broke the county record for weight. "
"The fattest pumpkin in the history of the county?"
"It missed the state record by ounces. It got written up in the paper. "
"Well, that is surprising. I was hoping for something a bit more salacious, but am forced to admit, I'd never have guessed you held the county record for fattest pumpkin. "
"How about you?"
"I'm afraid I've never grown a pumpkin of any size or weig
ht. "
"Surprise me. "
"I can walk on my hands. I'd demonstrate, but the ground's not conducive to hand-walking. Come on. You wouldn't have guessed that. "
"You're right. I will, however, insist on a demo later. I, after all, have documentation of the pumpkin. "
"Fair enough. "
She kept up the chatter, light and silly enough to make him laugh. He wasn't sure he'd laughed along this path since that fateful hike with his friends. But it seemed natural enough now, with the sun beaming down through the trees, the birds singing.
Until he heard the growl.
She'd heard it, too. He couldn't think of another reason her voice would have stopped so short, or her hand would have gripped his arm like a vise. "Cal-"
"Yeah, I hear it. We're nearly there. Sometimes it makes noise, sometimes it makes an appearance. " Never this time of year, he thought, as he hitched up the back of his jacket. But these, apparently, were different times. "Just stay close. "
"Believe me, I. . . " Her voice trailed off this time as he drew the large, jagged-edged hunting knife. "Okay. Okay. Now that would have been one of those unexpected things about you. That you, ah, carry a Crocodile Dundee around. "
"I don't come here unarmed. "
She moistened her lips. "And you probably know how to use it, if necessary. "
He shot her a look. "I probably do. Do you want to keep going, or do you want to turn around and go back?"
"I'm not turning tail. "
He could hear it rustling in the brush, could hear the slide of mud underfoot. Stalking them, he thought. He imagined the knife was as useless as a few harsh words if the thing meant business, but he felt better with it in his hand.
"Lump doesn't hear it," Quinn murmured, lifting her chin to where the dog slopped along the path a few feet ahead. "Even he can't be that lazy. If he heard it, scented it, he'd show some concern. So it's not real. " She took a slow breath. "It's just show. "
"Not real to him, anyway. "
When the thing howled, Cal took her firmly by the arm and pulled her through the edge of the trees into the clearing where the Pagan Stone speared up out of the muddy earth.
"I guess, all things considered, I was half expecting something along the lines of the king stone from Stonehenge. " Quinn stepped away from Cal to circle the stone. "It's amazing enough though, when you take a good look, the way it forms a table, or altar. How flat and smooth the top is. " She laid her hand on it. "It's warm," she added. "Warmer than stone should be in a February wood. "
He put his hand beside hers. "Sometimes it's cold. " He fit the knife back into its sheath. "Nothing to worry about when it's warm. So far. " He shoved his sleeve back, examined the scar on his wrist. "So far," he repeated.
Without thinking, he laid his hand over hers. "As long as-"
"It's heating up! Feel that? Do you feel that?"
She shifted, started to place her other hand on the stone. He moved, felt himself move as he might have through that wall of fire. Madly.
He gripped her shoulders, spinning her around until her back was pressed to the stone. Then sated the sudden, desperate appetite by taking her mouth.
For an instant, he was someone else, as was she, and the moment was full of grieving desperation. Her taste, her skin, the beat of her heart.
Then he was himself, feeling Quinn's lips heat under his as the stone had heated under their hands. It was her body quivering against his, and her fingers digging into his hips.
He wanted more, wanted to shove her onto the table of rock, to cover her with his body, to surround himself with all she was.
Not him, he thought dimly, or not entirely him. And so he made himself pull back, forced himself to break that connection.
The air wavered a moment. "Sorry," he managed. "Not altogether sorry, but-"
"Surprised. " Her voice was hoarse. "Me, too. That was definitely unexpected. Made me dizzy," she whispered. "That's not a complaint. It wasn't us, then it was. " She took another steadying breath. "Call me a slut, but I liked it both ways. " With her eyes on his, she placed her hand on the stone again. "Want to try it again?"
"I think I'm still a man, so damn right I do. But I don't think it'd be smart, or particularly safe. Plus, I don't care for someone-something-else yanking on my hormones. Next time I kiss you, it's just you and me. "
"All right. Connections. " She nodded. "I'm more in favor than ever about the theory regarding connections. Could be blood, could be a reincarnation thing. It's worth exploring. "
She sidestepped away from the stone, and him. "So, no more contact with each other and that thing for the time being. And let's take it back to the purpose at hand. "
"Are you okay?"
"Stirred me up, I'll admit. But no harm, no foul. " She took out her water bottle, and this time drank deep.
"I wanted you. Both ways. "
Lowering the bottle, she met those calm gray eyes. She'd just gulped down water, she thought, but now her throat was dry again. "I know. What I don't know is if that's going to be a problem. "
"It's going to be a problem. I'm not going to care about that. "
Her pulse gave a couple of quick jumps. "Ah. . . This probably isn't the place to-"
"No, it's not. " He took a step forward, but didn't touch her. And still her skin went hot. "There's going to be another place. "
"Okay. " She cleared her throat. "All right. To work. "
She did another circle while he watched her. He'd made her a little jumpy. He didn't mind that. In fact, he considered it a point for his side. Something might have pushed him to kiss her that way, but he knew what he'd felt as that something released its grip. He knew what he'd been feeling since she'd stepped out of her car at the top of his lane.
Plain and simple lust. Caleb Hawkins for Quinn Black.
"You camped here, the three of you, that night. " Apparently taking Cal at his word about the safety of the area, Quinn moved easily around the clearing. "You-if I have any understanding of young boys-ate junk food, ragged on each other, maybe told ghost stories. "
"Some. We also drank the beer Gage stole from his father, and looked at the skin mags he'd swiped. "
"Of course, though I'd have pegged those activities for more like twelve-year-olds. "
"Precocious. " He ordered himself to stop thinking about her, to take himself back. "We built a fire. We had the boom box on. It was a pretty night, still hot, but not oppressive. And it was our night. It was, we thought, our place. Sacred ground. "
"So your great-grandmother said. "
"It called for ritual. " He waited for her to turn to him. "We wrote down words. Words we made. We swore an oath, and at midnight, I used my Boy Scout knife to cut our wrists. We said the words we'd made and pressed our wrists together to mix the blood. To make us blood brothers. And hell opened up. "
"What happened?"
"I don't know, not exactly. None of us do, not that we can remember. There was a kind of explosion. It seemed like one. The light was blinding, and the force of it knocked me back. Lifted me right off my feet. Screams, but I've never known if they were mine, Fox's, Gage's, or something else. The fire shot straight up, there seemed to be fire everywhere, but we weren't burned. Something pushed out, pushed into me. Pain, I remember pain. Then I saw some kind of dark mass rising out, and felt the cold it brought with it. Then it was over, and we were alone, scared, and the ground was scorched black. "
Ten years old, she thought. Just a little boy. "How did you get out?"
"We hiked out the next morning pretty much as we'd hiked in. Except for a few changes. I came into this clearing when I was nine. I was wearing glasses. I was nearsighted. "
Her brows rose. "Was?"
"Twenty-one hundred in my left eye, twenty-ninety in my right. I walked out ten, and twenty-twenty. None of us had a mark on him when we left, though Gage especially had some wounds he brought in with him. Not one of u
s has been sick a day since that night. If we're injured, it heals on its own. "
There was no doubt on her face, only interest with a touch, he thought, of fascination. It struck him that other than his family she was the only one who knew. Who believed.
"You were given some sort of immunity. "
"You could call it that. "
"Do you feel pain?"
"Damn right. I came out with perfect vision, not X-ray. And the healing can hurt like a mother, but it's pretty quick. I can see things that happened before, like out on the trail. Not all the time, not every time, but I can see events of the past. "
"A reverse clairvoyance. "
"When it's on. I've seen what happened here on July seventh, sixteen fifty-two. "
"What happened here, Cal?"
"The demon was bound under the stone. And Fox, Gage, and I, we cut the bastard loose. "
She moved to him. She wanted to touch him, to soothe that worry from his face, but was afraid to. "If you did, you weren't to blame. "
"Blame and responsibility aren't much different. "
The hell with it. She laid her hands on his cheeks even when he flinched. Then touched her lips gently to his. "That was normal. You're responsible because, to my mind, you're willing to take responsibility. You've stayed when a lot of other men would've walked, if not run, away from here. So I say there's a way to beat it back where it belongs. And I'm going to do whatever I can to help you do just that. "
She opened her pack. "I'm going to take photos, some measurements, some notes, and ask a lot of annoying questions. "
She'd shaken him. The touch, the words, the faith. He wanted to draw her in, hold on to her. Just hold on. Normal, she'd said, and looking at her now, he craved the bliss of normality.
Not the place, he reminded himself, and stepped back. "You've got an hour. We start back in an hour. We're going to be well out of the woods before twilight. "
"No argument. " This time, she thought, and went to work.