Blood Brothers Page 0,19

and traumatized onto a school bus and transport them to the hospital. Is that accurate?"

"As far as it goes."

"I'm looking to go further. In two thousand one-"

"I know the pattern," Cal interrupted.

"Every seven years," Quinn said with a nod. "For seven nights. Days-according again to what I can ascertain-little happens. But from sundown to sunset, all hell breaks loose. It's hard to believe that it's a coincidence this anomaly happens every seven years, with its start on your birthday. Seven's considered a magickal number by those who profess to magicks, black and white. You were born on the seventh day of the seventh month of nineteen seventy-seven."

"If I knew the answers, I'd stop it from happening. If I knew the answers, I wouldn't be talking to you. I'm talking to you because maybe, just maybe, you'll find them, or help find them."

"Then tell me what happened, tell me what you do know, even what you think or sense."

Cal set his coffee aside, leaned forward to look deep into her eyes. "Not on a first date."

Smart-ass, she thought with considerable approval. "Fine. Next time I'll buy you dinner first. But now, how about playing guide and taking me to the Pagan Stone."

"It's too late in the day. It's a two-hour hike from here. We wouldn't make it there and back before dark."

"I'm not afraid of the dark."

His eyes went very cool. "You would be. I'll tell you this, there are places in these woods no one goes after dark, not any time of the year."

She felt the prick of ice at the base of her spine. "Have you ever seen a boy, about the age you'd have been in eighty-seven. A boy with dark hair. And red eyes." She saw by the way Cal paled she'd flicked a switch. "You have seen him."

"Why do you ask about that?"

"Because I saw him."

Now Cal pushed to his feet, paced to the window, stared out at the woods. The light was dimmer, duller already than it had been an hour before.

They'd never told anyone about the boy-or the man-whatever form the thing chose to take. Yes, he'd seen him, and not only during that one hellish week every seven years.

He'd seen it in dreams. He'd seen it out of the corner of his eye, or loping through the woods. Or with its face pressed to the dark glass of his bedroom window...and its mouth grinning.

But no one, no one but he, Fox, and Gage had ever seen it in the between times.

Why had she?

"When and where did you see him?"

"Today, just before I turned off onto Pagan Road. He ran in front of my car. Came out of nowhere. That's what people always say, but this time it's true. A boy, then it wasn't a boy but a dog. Then it wasn't anything. There was nothing there."

He heard her rise, and when he turned was simply stunned to see that brilliant smile on her face. "And this kind of thing makes you happy?"

"It makes me thrilled. Excited. I'm saying wow! I had myself what we could call a close encounter with an unspecified phenomenon. Scary, I grant you, but again, wow. This sort of thing completely winds me up."

"I can see that."

"I knew there was something here, and I thought it was big. But to have it confirmed, the first day out, that's hitting the mother lode with the first whack of the pick."

"I haven't confirmed anything."

"Your face did." She picked up her recorder, turned it off. He wasn't going to tell her anything today. Cautious man, Caleb Hawkins. "I need to get into town, check into the hotel, get a lay of the land. Why don't I buy you that dinner tonight?"

She moved fast, and he made a habit of taking his time. "Why don't you take some time to settle in? We can talk about dinner and so on in a couple days."

"I love a man who's hard to get." She slipped her recorder, her notepad back in her bag. "I guess I'll need my coat."

After he'd brought it to her, she studied him as she shrugged it on. "You know, when you first came outside, I had the strangest sensation. I thought I recognized you, that I'd known you before. That you'd waited for me before. It was very strong. Did you feel anything like that?"

"No. But maybe I was too busy thinking, she looks better than her picture."

"Really? Nice, because I looked terrific in that picture. Thanks for the coffee."