Riverwatch

Chapter Thirty-nine: Mystical Methods

Fifteen minutes later Sam was seated outside Damon’s office, waiting for him to return. The Desk Sergeant had a radio on low, and Sam listened to the news reports as they came in; the reporter’s information on Jake’s death sketchy and full of speculation. Of immediate concern was whether or not the serial killer police had believed dead in June had returned to Harrington Falls. Since Jake’s earlier involvement had been kept from the media, no one made the connection between the two, believing him to be just another random victim.

Sam knew better.

Come talk to me, he thought silently. I’ll tell you the truth. I’ll give you a story the likes of which you wouldn’t believe. He knew he never could, though. Jake’s death would forever be shrouded in mystery, the file permanently open, the crime unsolved.

Damon came through the door then, followed by a pair of deputies. He saw Sam and nodded in his direction, letting him know he’d be right with him.

From across the room Sam could see the fatigue on Damon’s face, the worry lines cut like canyons in his brow. His eyes were hollowed pits in his skull, and for a moment Sam thought the man was ready to collapse, but when he turned and invited him into his office, his voice was firm and steady.

The strength Sam was counting on was still there.

Damon ushered him into his office and closed the door. He crossed the room and slumped wearily into his chair, indicating with a wave of his hand that Sam should take one of the two vacant chairs in front of the desk. When Sam had done so, Damon tossed a thick manila envelope onto the desk.

"I shouldn’t be doing this, but those are the crime scene photos from your friend’s death. They match all the others. It’s the same thing."

Sam didn’t move to take them. There was no need for a second look. The memory of his friend lying dead would never leave him.

Damon’s respect for him Sam another notch. He continued, "The damn thing is back. The lab confirms it; same teeth and claw marks, same MO. But we don’t have any idea where it might be now."

"That’s why I’m here," Sam replied. He filled the Sheriff in on the evening’s events, outlining the use he had intended to make of the Bloodstone, Katelynn’s refusal to have anything to do with the idea, and the fact that he had no idea where the stone might be now.

"What can we do then?" Damon asked.

"We use the other one."

Damon looked blankly at Sam for a moment. "What?" he asked.

"I said: we use the other one. Do you have an inventory of the items you recovered at Riverwatch on the night Hudson Blake disappeared?"

"Sure." The Sheriff dug around in the stacks of files on his desk until he found the right one. He removed a thick sheaf of paper bound by a paper clip, then selected several pages and handed them across to Sam. "This is a list of everything we took out of the house."

Sam scanned the list, praying that he was right.

He finally found it about three quarters of the way down the third page. One small polished red stone on a gold necklace; type unknown. He pointed it out to the Sheriff.

"Do you have all of these items here at the station?" he asked, handing the list back.

"Probably. The bigger pieces would have been left in place or are in storage in the courthouse basement, but everything in the specific room where they found the body was photographed, tagged as evidence, and packed up to be brought over to the lab for examination. Most of it is probably downstairs in the evidence locker by now. Why?"

"I think that Blake not only knew about the Nightshade, but that he was trying to contact it. I’m betting that the stone you found is an exact duplicate to the one Katelynn had, a matched pair. If I’m right, we can still it to trace where the Nightshade has gone."

Agreeing that it might work, Damon got the keys and the two of them descended to the basement. Damon walked over to a door marked ‘Evidence’. Removing a key from his belt, he unlocked the door and disappeared inside. He returned a moment later carrying a large cardboard box.

"I think it might be in this one," he said.

He carried the box over to a bench and set it down lightly. Inside were several rows of sealed plastic bags and a sheet of paper. Checking the list in his hand against the one in the box, Damon assured himself he had the right container, then he rifled through it until he had found the bag he needed. He pulled it forth, glanced at it and handed it to Sam.

Sam stared at what he held for a long moment. A slow, grim smiled crossed his face.

Inside the bag was a red stone identical in shape and coloration to the one Katelynn had until recently been wearing. This one hung on a long chain of gold.

"Is that it?" the Sheriff asked.

Sam nodded.

Damon ushered Sam down the hall and into a small room marked ‘Interrogation’. He took a moment to make certain the observation room next door was empty, then closed and locked the door behind him. It wouldn’t do to have anyone see them trying this when the rest of his deputies were out searching for the killer. He might know it was necessary, but there was no way he would be able to explain that to anyone else.

He and Sam took seats opposite each other, the stone resting on the table between them.

"How do we do this?" Damon asked, feeling slightly ridiculous but willing to go on despite it.

Sam shrugged. "Damned if I know. Katelynn said that she has never tried to achieve the link consciously. The first couple of times it happened while she was asleep. The next, while she was busy studying in the library. The last was in the car that night."

He reached out and picked up the stone, letting it hang from his hand. It spun on its chain, casting streaks of crimson light the color of freshly spilled blood.

"Maybe if you just concentrate on it, sort of project your thoughts in its direction?" Damon suggested.

"Worth a try," Sam cupped the stone between his hands and gathered his thoughts about him like a cloak. He cleared his mind, striving to reach a state of calmness. He breathed slowly; in through his nose and out through his mouth, a deep, slow rhythm. Once he felt ready, he began to form an image of the beast as he remembered it from that fateful night at Riverwatch. He projected as much detail into the image as he could, relying on his recollection of the statue to flesh out the parts he was missing. Then he began to assault the image with questions, variations of "Where are you?" hoping the Stone would form the link they needed to locate the beast.

Nothing happened.

Sam kept it up for several more minutes, while Damon sat quietly on the other side of the table, but nothing happened.

"Here, let me try."

Sam passed the stone over to the Sheriff, who attempted the same thing.

Again, no luck.

For the next half hour they tried everything they could think of to get the stone to unlock its secrets. They projected their thoughts at it. They set it in the center of the table and spoke to it. They held hands and chanted at it.

Nothing worked.

"Damn it!" Sam got up from the table and began pacing, venting his frustration through physical action.

Damon glanced at his watch. "We don’t have time for this, Sam."

"I know, I know. Okay, maybe it takes a certain type of person to use the stone. Or maybe it needs to be attuned to a particular individual beforehand and we don’t know how to do that. Either way, we’re screwed. Unless this one will work for Katelynn."

"I can always order her to use the stone," Damon said.

Sam stopped pacing and looked at him incredulously. "Oh, right. And when she refuses, what are you going to do? Force her to do it at gunpoint?"

For just a moment Sam thought that Damon was going to say yes. There was anger in the man’s eyes now, and a level of frustration that Sam could easily identify with. Common sense must have reasserted itself, however. Damon stared at him a moment, then turned away, shaking his head in answer to Sam’s question.

"We’re going to have to convince her that it’s the only way of locating this thing."

Sam agreed. He didn’t know how they were going to manage it, but it was the only option they had left.

Katelynn had to help.

Surely she’d understand that.

.

She met them at the door with a wary look, but let them in nonetheless. They moved into the living room, with Damon and Sam choosing seats on one side of the coffee table and Katelynn and Loki seated on the couch on the other.

Damon let Sam do the talking, explaining how they had acquired the stone and what they wanted her to do with it.

She listened to their story, a false veneer of calm plastered across her face.

Then, just as calmly, she told them no.

"Can’t you see we don’t have any other option, Katelynn? You’re the only one who can do this!" Sam said in exasperation.

For the first time emotion flared in Katelynn. "Bullshit! You don’t know that! You don’t know anything; you’re just guessing." She wrapped her arms around Loki’s neck, a sign of her unease. The dog whined in reply.

Damon nodded, to show his agreement with her statement. "You’re right, Katelynn. We are guessing. It won’t work for Sam or me. It might not even work for you." He kept his tone calm, reasonable, to help defuse the frustration and anger that was rapidly filling the room. "But what would you suggest we do? We know the stone has worked for you in the past. We don’t have the original, but we are hoping this one will work the same way. We need you to try."

Sam looked like he was about to speak but Damon silenced him with a swift glance.

"I don’t want to do it," she answered stubbornly.

Damon could see she that was starting to break. He let the silence stretch for a moment, then played his trump card.

"If you don’t, someone else will lose someone they love. Just as you lost Jake."

It wasn’t fair to play on her emotions like that, but Damon was getting desperate. He agreed with Sam; they needed to find this thing as swiftly as possible, and Katelynn was the quickest and easiest means.

Katelynn stared at him. He watched the emotions flash across her eyes: anger, fear, pain, worry. For just a moment he felt the power of that emotion jump the distance between them. Then Katelynn turned away and the link was broken.

No one said anything.

The silence stretched.

Loki whined again, and licked Katelynn’s face.

She turned and looked into the dog’s eyes. What she saw there Damon didn’t know, but when she turned back to face him, he knew before she had said a word that she would do it.

"Okay. Give me the stone."

Sam suppressed a grin and dug the object out of his pocket. He tried to hand it across the table to her, but she refused to take it. He left it lying in the center of the table in front of her.

"It will be okay, Katelynn," Damon said. The other times you’ve done this you weren’t prepared for it. You had no one to help you out of the trance if you got into trouble. This time both Sam and I will be here. At the slightest sign that you’re in danger, we will pull you out of it."

Katelynn ignored him, knowing that while his intentions were good, they would be of no use to her if she did get into trouble. She knew how powerful the Nightshade actually was. She had done her best to free herself of its loathsome grip in the car that night; in the end, she had failed.

Now, she was being forced to put herself in danger again, and she wasn’t happy about it. Who knew what kind of power the beast could send back through that link with the stone? And yet, the Sheriff was right. She didn’t have much of a choice. To let the thing roam free and continue its slaughter was unthinkable.

She would have to use the stone.

Pure evil seemed to emanate from the it and Katelynn had to force herself to pick it up.

She lay down on the sofa, the stone clasped between both hands. Loki sat on the floor next to her. Sam took a seat on the table itself, while Damon stood behind it.

"If I look like I’m struggling, or in pain, do everything you can to wake me up. Taking the stone out of my hands should do it. Shake me, slap me, do whatever it takes," Katelynn told them insistently.

They agreed.

With that said, Katelynn went to work.

Much as Sam had done earlier that night, Katelynn set out to clear her mind of all thought, letting a dark, empty void fill her. Instead of concentrating on the stone, however, she cast her thoughts outward, seeking the beast. She pictured it as she’d seen it in her dreams, its long wings stretched out on either side as it soared through the air. She listened for its heartbeat, that three-chambered rhythm she’d heard before. She imagined the caress of the wind across her flanks, and the flicker of her tongue across her teeth…

Abruptly, she made contact.

The Nightshade was crouched atop a high structure, staring out into the night. Through its eyes she could see the University grounds and knew immediately the spot it had chosen for its vantage point.

Keating Hall.

A high stone tower projected up from the building’s roof, and it was there that the beast was perched. Instantly Katelynn knew that this was the creature’s new lair. It had chosen high, lonely structures previously, and this was no exception. The clock tower had been unused for years, and the beast would be free to come and go at will, provided it avoided drawing attention to itself.

Having achieved her objective, Katelynn attempted to abandon the trance.

Her gaze never strayed from the campus grounds.

She struggled harder, willing herself to awaken.

Nothing happened. She remained linked to the beast, trapped within its consciousness.

A strange lethargy began to seep through her. Darkness loomed, then overwhelmed.

Just as quickly, her vision began to return, but she was no longer seeing the dark campus grounds. Instead, she found herself looking into Loki’s face, inches from her own.

The dog growled, deep and low in its throat.

"It’s okay, Loki," Katelynn tried to say.

No sound issued forth from her throat.

Katelynn began to panic.

The two men watched as Katelynn quickly slipped into her trance. One minute she was with them; the next, lost in whatever realm her consciousness had fled to. Her body visibly relaxed. Her breathing deepened and slowed. Her eyes flickered beneath their closed lids.

Her hands remained securely locked around the stone.

They waited.

Five minutes passed. Ten.

Katelynn remained locked in her trance.

Suddenly Loki jumped to his feet and moved closer to Katelynn. He sniffed at her face, then pulled back to watch her.

Damon and Sam watched as Katelynn’s eyes slowly opened.

Looking at her, the dog growled long and low.

"Did you find it?" Sam asked. "Did it work?"

Katelynn didn’t answer.

She turned her head, slowly looking at Sam, then at Damon.

Loki scampered back, growling again.

"What’s wrong with him?" Sam asked, still not realizing that Katelynn was reacting strangely.

Damon had noticed, however. He’d noticed Loki’s response to Katelynn as well. He didn’t like either one. Something had gone horribly wrong.

The fear rose like a spectre in the night and threatened to overwhelm her. The Nightshade had used the power of the link against her, reversing the connection. The beast had taken control, using his mental powers to assume control of her form.

While the Sheriff and Sam were waiting for her to divulge the beast’s location, the beast was using her to spy on them!

It only lasted a moment, but that was long enough.

Just as Damon stepped toward her, just as Sam was reaching out to her, just as Loki was about to attack, the Nightshade released his hold and the connection between them was broken.

Darkness descended in Katelynn’s mind for a second time that night.

Katelynn came to in Sam’s arms, a cold cloth pressed against her forehead. Loki was standing next to the sofa, trying desperately to lick her face while being held back by Damon stood with a hand wrapped around the dog’s collar and his gun pointed in her direction.

"Are you all right?" Sam asked, concern etched on his face.

Katelynn didn’t trust herself to speak so she nodded instead.

Damon still looked suspicious, but lowered his gun nonetheless. "What happened?" he asked.

Katelynn took several deep breaths, doing what she could to get her heart back under control. She was bathed in sweat, her long hair hanging in limp strands about her face. Her hands were shaking when she answered him.

"I found it," she said. "At the University. It’s using the old clock tower as an aerie."

"Yes!" Sam cried, exuberantly.

Damon had not yet taken his eyes off Katelynn. "And?"

Katelynn continued to meet his gaze. "The link worked both ways this time. There wasn’t anything I could do to stop it. Before I could get free, it took control of my senses and got a good long look at the two of you. We discovered where it is hiding, yes, but it knows now that we’re coming after it. We don’t have much time."

Grimly, Damon nodded.

He had suspected as much when the dog had gone crazy, ready to rip Katelynn’s throat out when she opened her eyes the first time.

"What do we do?" Sam asked, his excitement stifled in lieu of what he’d just learned.

Damon turned to face him. "Do?" he asked. "Same thing we had planned to do. We find it and kill it."

"But it knows we’re coming. We won’t stand a chance," Sam said flatly.

Damon gave him a steely look. "Do we have any choice?"