I decided blunt was better than tact in this case. “What’s going on, Lindsey? I can smell your worry across the room.”
She leaned back, resting against the headrest on the rocking chair. “I’m not sure, but there’s something wrong. I can tell you that. I’m not sure how to describe it…”
“Start from the beginning.” Smoky pushed back his chair. “That’s usually the easiest.”
I shook my head. The dragon could sometimes be a lunkhead, but he meant well. “Smoky’s right, Lindsey. Just tell us the best you can.”
Trillian and Hanna began to clear the table. Maggie let out a wail from Iris’s room and Bruce went in to tend to her. He had a way with the gargoyle that none of us had expected and had taken over helping care for her.
“As I said, I had my baby a couple of months ago. I took about eight weeks off from leading the coven—three before having Feddrika, and five after—but they look to me for guidance and I decided it was time to take up the reins again. So…it was about three weeks ago that I started attending meetings again.”
She paused to accept a cup of tea from Trillian, and a peanut butter cookie as he brought the tray to the table. “Thank you. I’ve been craving sugar lately and I don’t know why. I never ate much of it before.”
“Hormones?” Iris asked from the sink, where she was scraping plates and filling the dishwasher.
“No, I don’t think so. Lack of energy. Which is a part of my story.” Lindsey frowned as she bit into the cookie. “Okay, here’s the best way I can describe matters. I came back to the coven, feeling okay. I mean, postpartum is hard, and yes, I’m tired from the baby and pregnancy and feedings, but the minute I took up leadership again, my energy began to vanish and I know it’s not related to hormones, though everybody keeps saying it has to be. I checked with my naturopath and she says my hormones are right where they should be for this point. Also, I began to notice the same thing about my coven-mates.”
Good. Lindsey had done all the practical things, which she should have. Now she was coming to us. Trouble was, we sure didn’t have all the answers.
“Do you have any thoughts on what’s happening?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “Even the strongest members of our coven, those who were always the most energetic, are hard pressed to muster up enough energy to charge the candles for ritual. We’ve been meeting the past three weeks as usual, but there’s no…oomph there. And what’s worse is that no one in the group besides me seems to give a damn. Maybe they’re all too tired to care.”
“I suppose I could try scrying for an answer.” Camille was fairly good when it came to divination.
Lindsey let out a soft shrug. “I hope you have more luck than me. I did a reading, but my cards are wonky and won’t talk to me the way they usually do. And my cards always talk to me. I’m worried and I wasn’t sure where to go for advice. So I thought I’d come here and ask you.”
This was more Camille’s territory. I motioned to her. “Any ideas?”
Camille played with her cookie, breaking it in half and then dropping the pieces on the saucer. She looked perplexed. “Do you know if this started in your absence, or around the time when you came back?”
Lindsey started to shake her head, but then stopped. “We met in the afternoon on that first Saturday I returned, and everybody seemed fine. We headed out on a field trip to a psychic fair being held in north Seattle. While we were there, we just hung out, got some readings done, bought crystals and incense and other doodads like that. You know, a peaceful, low-key afternoon. Then we broke for dinner and met up again that night for our usual meeting. And everybody…seemed different. Zonked out.”
“So something happened between the fair and the meeting.” Delilah grabbed a second cookie, and then a third. Shade reached over and gently took the third cookie out of her hand and bit into it. She growled at him, but then laughed. “Get your own damned cookie, sweetheart.”
He snorted. “Share and share alike, darling.”
Camille pulled a steno pad to her and began to jot down notes. “Maybe something didn’t happen between the fair and meeting, but at the fair.” She glanced over at Lindsey. “Where was this fair held? Who sponsored it? And do you remember anything odd at all about the day?”
Lindsey leaned back in the rocking chair as Bruce carried Maggie in.
“Our girl wants her dinner.” He hefted her on his side—she was nearly a third as big as he was—and headed over to the playpen. But Lindsey stopped him.
“Can I hold her? She’s so cute and such a little love.”
As the woman took the gargoyle in hand, I could see the maternal glaze in her eyes. Mamas were mamas around babies, that was for sure. And it didn’t matter whether the baby was a gargoyle or a kitten or human.
As Bruce deposited Maggie in Lindsey’s arms, Lindsey snuggled her close. “The fair was held in the Westlake Community Hall. I’m trying to remember who sponsored it—usually I have a good memory but the past few months the hormones have played havoc with my thought processes.” She frowned. “Something like…oh yeah, I remember. They called themselves the Aleksais Psychic Network.”
“Are you sure?” Camille jotted down the name.
“Yes, because the name struck me. I’d never heard of the group before and decided we’d go check them out, get a feel for who they were. Most of the covens and psychics around here are networked to some degree. We have pages on Spell-Space, and forums, and whatnot to keep abreast of news in the supernatural community, as well as our own psychic community. We’re not as networked as Portland, but we’re getting there. If the group had been around for a while, I would have heard of them before.”
“Did you meet any of their organizers?” I took Maggie from her as our baby girl began to get a little agitated. “Maggie, be good. I know you’re hungry but you have to wait for Hanna to mix up your cream drink.”
“Cweem—cweem! Want!” Maggie began to wail in earnest as I tried to pacify her by dangling my braids in front of her. Sometimes it worked, but this time Maggie’s cries just grew more frustrated and finally, I set her on the table and scolded her. “No, Maggie! Stop crying. Either you behave or you’ll go to bed right now.”
She stopped, cocking her head to one side. The ears gave her a lopsided look when she did that and I stifled a laugh. Even though she was cute, Maggie didn’t like being laughed at when she was in one of her moods. She understood enough to know what I’d said, and so I kept my expression stern, and after a moment, the tears subsided to a coughing sob, and she sniffled pathetically.
“Yeah, you know how to work it, don’t you?” I quietly hugged her again. By then, Hanna had prepared her bottle and took her in the living room, where Maggie wouldn’t disturb our talk.
Lindsey shook her head. “I can hardly wait till my little Feddrika hits those years.” She grinned. “But you’re in for it a lot longer than I ever will be.” Sighing, she said, “As far as the organizers go, yeah. I think we did meet one. Strange fellow, now that I think about it. He seemed…almost like he wasn’t quite in this world. I didn’t think about it at the time. I guess I thought it was because of the energy in the building from all the psychics, but now that I think about it, he didn’t feel real.”
That could mean a number of things. “Not real, how?”
Lifting her teacup to her lips, she frowned and took a sip. “Not real as in…as if he were in disguise. He looked the part, sounded the part, but something felt discordant between his energy and his actions. Like an actor who hasn’t got a full handle on who their character truly is.”
That made sense. I glanced over at Camille, who nodded. “Do you remember his name?”
Lindsey munched on the cookie. “Hal Danvers? No…Halcon Davis. That’s it. Halcon Davis, and I remember because I thought, gee—his name seems a lot like the word halcyon.”
I jotted down his name. “So you went to the psychic fair and after that…”
“Malaise. That’s what I’d call it. All members of my coven who went that day have been pretty much out of steam since then. Our rituals feel forced; we don’t have the rhythm down that we did. At first I thought it was because of my pregnancy and how it had changed my body and energy field, that maybe I was infecting the others with some sort of fatigue. After checking with my naturopath, though…I don’t think so. And, I had a dream.”
“Dream?” Vanzir, who had been fooling around with Morio’s laptop, stopped to look over at her. “What kind of dream?”
She leaned forward and set her teacup on the table. “Last night, I woke up in a cold sweat. I’ve been doing that off and on for the past couple weeks but couldn’t figure out why. Anyway, for the first time in over a month, last night I remembered my dream, and it felt familiar, like I’ve had it before.”
As we waited for her to continue, the energy began to thicken. Lindsey’s eyes were wide, brilliant, and afraid. She slowly let out a long breath. “I dreamed that I was out of my body, attending some sort of ritual. I was standing there and looked down at my silver cord and—”
A pause. Another beat as she seemed to struggle for words, and the next moment, she was heading toward the floor. She hit the floor, her eyes rolling back in her head as her body began to jerk and twist.
“She’s having a seizure. Stand back, give her room!” Iris immediately shooed everyone back and was on her knees as Lindsey writhed, her body racked by spasms. She began to froth at the mouth.
Iris rolled Lindsey on her side and called for a cushion. I raced into the living room and brought back a pillow off the sofa, which she slipped beneath Lindsey’s head. Lindsey sounded like a frantic dog, her sounds chaotic and rough, almost like barking.
“Should I call 911?” Camille grabbed the phone, but Iris shook her head.
“Not yet—give me a second.” Iris placed her hands on Lindsey’s back, taking care to avoid the flailing arms, and closed her eyes, whispering something so low we could not hear her voice. A moment later, Lindsey began to calm, and yet another moment and she was limp, breathing shallowly, her eyes closed.
Trillian hurried into the hall bathroom and returned with two cool cloths, gently pressing one against Lindsey’s forehead and the other behind her neck. After a moment, where Iris kept her hands pressed to Lindsey’s back, our friend’s eyes opened, and she moaned softly.
“What…what…?” Confusion filled her face as she looked up at us.
“Shush, my dear. You had a seizure. Lindsey, do you have epilepsy?” Iris motioned to Trillian, who cautiously lifted Lindsey into a sitting position. Lindsey groaned and reached for her neck.
“No, I don’t. I ache all over. What happened?”
“What’s your name?” Iris took her hands and held them, rubbing them gently in her own small ones.
“I’m…I’m…Lindsey. That’s it. Lindsey…Cartridge.” Lindsey began to look alarmed.
“Very good. What day is it?”
“Today’s…I don’t remember. It’s…um…oh—Tuesday. I don’t know why I forgot. Today was the day that I was supposed to return to work, but I told them I’d be in tomorrow because I’m still tired.” She grimaced as she rubbed her neck. “I hurt like hell. What the heck happened to me?”
“You had a seizure, Lindsey. Do you have blood sugar issues?” Iris felt her forehead, then gripped her wrist, checking her pulse. “You’re clammy, and your pulse is racing.”
Lindsey shook her head. “No, nothing like that. I’ve never had a seizure in my life.” As Trillian helped her to her feet, Smoky brought a chair over and Lindsey weakly sat down. She leaned on the table, trying to shake off the attack.
“Do you remember what we were talking about before you lost consciousness?” I had a sneaking suspicion and wanted to see if it proved out. This was too much of a coincidence.
“You need to eat something. That took a lot of energy out of you. And drink the tea.” Camille brought her another cup of tea, setting it in front of her along with another cookie.
Lindsey closed her eyes, breathing in the steam that rose off the cup. Iris moved behind her and, using a stepstool, began to lightly massage her shoulders. Lindsey leaned back into the back rub, sighing.
“I can’t remember what we were talking about. Last I remember, I was telling you about the psychic fair.” She pursed her lips, squinting, then again shook her head. “That’s it.”
“We were asking you about a dream you mentioned—one that woke you up in a cold sweat?” I didn’t want to trigger another seizure, so decided to walk softly on the subject.
Lindsey cocked her head, looking confused. “I don’t remember saying anything about a dream. I haven’t been sleeping well lately but I’m pretty sure it’s the baby causing it—she wakes up every few hours for a feeding, and I’m up off and on all night.”
I debated whether to push further, but behind Lindsey, Iris gestured no so I left it at that. “Okay, we must have been mistaken. You’ve probably been overtiring yourself. I don’t like you driving home by yourself. Let Shade drive you home and he can come back here through the Ionyc Seas. He’s a good driver and will get you there safely.”
Her mouth twisted and she looked like she was going to cry. “I know I came because I’m worried about my group. I can’t remember everything we talked about—that scares me.”