Finding My Faith Read online

Well, that was it in a nutshell. There was also the part that The Woman With Fire For Hair and the Red-Eyed Wolf Warrior would remain eternally young. When the Earth was in her greatest need of their son, only then would he be conceived. After his birth, they would continue to age as humans.

  Faith wasn't sure she believed in the legend. She thought that perhaps one of her ancestors had met up and gotten busy with someone of pure Irish descent, and that was how she got her hair. And really…a man with red eyes? And not aging? Sounded like the stuff of someone who had taken one too many hits off the peace pipe.

  That was another reason Faith’s father was so protective of her. Sure, she was a little adventurous and seemed to get herself in a lot of predicaments. And she tended to be a little headstrong, focusing on what she wanted and not relenting until she got it. He was certain she would be the one to fulfill the legend, and he wanted to keep her safe so she could do so.

  She exhaled again, glad she was one block away from her apartment complex. She felt the need to put her Reeboks into use and sprint the rest of the way, but she refused to give into her fears, fears that she was certain were ridiculous.

  However, she had always been one to listen to her instincts. She had been taught to listen to her instincts, what her spirit told her, and they hadn't let her down yet. Like the time she was at a bar with a couple of her friends, and her instincts told her to get home ASAP. She had found out the next morning that there was a shooting at that bar. Or the time that her instincts told her not to get on the bus, but wait for the next one. That bus had been involved in an accident. They hadn't failed her, as long as she listened to them.

  Except this time, she was certain she was overreacting. She had been on edge for weeks and her nerves were frayed. She had to be overreacting, right?

  And then she heard the subtle footsteps behind her, but didn't have time to do anything about it. She also felt arms wrap around her neck and torso, a hand clamped down on her mouth. She tried to pull the arms off of her. She inhaled to scream and smelled the vapors of something chemical in her nose. Seconds later, her knees went weak, her eyelids heavy, and the world went black.

  ***

  Faith found herself coming to consciousness at some point. How long had passed, she didn't know. Her throat ached, and her body felt like it had been hit by a car. Her head pounded, and she felt so weak. She had the passing thought that she was certain she was dying. She was terrified to open her eyes, but she knew she needed to find out where she was, who had taken her. She took a deep breath and cracked her eyelids.

  She was in some type of cell. A cage. She smelled the musty, wet scent of earth, and felt dirt under her fingertips. A lone bulb above her shone at forty watts, allowing her to see her surroundings.

  There were five other girls in the cell with her, all with red hair of different shades, all lying in the dirt. Some of the girls had dyed red hair, while others had that brownish-red color. Hers was the only hair of fire, as her mother had said.

  She tried to stand, but her knees wouldn’t support her weight, and she fell against the brick wall and damp earth.

  She tried again, going on sheer will to stand upright.

  She heard footsteps and sunk back down against the wall. Whoever was coming was also humming a song that she couldn't place.

  She stared at him as he approached. The first thing she noticed was how normal he looked, except for his eyes. His black hair was trimmed close to his skull, and his facial features were those of a man who could move through life without being noticed. He had the coldest, black eyes she had ever seen. He looked like he was average height, and he was thin, but fit. She thought maybe she had seen him before, but she couldn't place where. Dressed in a white shirt and black slacks, he looked so completely normal, it was like she had been dropped in a horror movie where the good guy who lived next door, who always said hello with a wave and a smile, was actually a mass murderer with bodies in his basement freezer.

  “You're awake,” he said.

  She couldn't talk past the fear that roiled in her gut.

  “You aren't supposed to be awake.”

  She remained silent.

  “So we're going to put you back to sleep.”

  She watched as he pulled a key from his pocket, unlocked the door to the cell, and stepped over one of the girls. Faith could barely breathe from the fear. He took out a needle from his pants pocket, snapped off the lid and stabbed her arm with it, not taking any care in trying to be gentle.

  “You're killing me,” she whispered, the stab making her eyes tear up. God, her throat was so parched.

  He looked at her and smiled. Faith knew at that point she was seeing a true face of evil. It was in the eyes.

  “I'm not going to kill you, silly girl,” he said, "I've got plans for you. If I had wanted you dead, then you would be. Now them…" he gestured to the others lying on the dirt floor of the cell, "they're a different story, but it's nothing for you to concern yourself about. Sweet dreams." He walked away, still humming the same tune that she couldn't place.

  She looked around, feeling so afraid and helpless, and too quickly, the blackness overtook her.

  Chapter 5

  Charles listened to his phone ring and knew it was Diego. He had programmed AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell” to play whenever the human called.

  “When can I expect my little redhead, my little chosen one?” Diego asked in a thick accent, never one for nice chit chat, or even a hello.

  “I’ve got her. I’ll be moving her in a couple of days. I don’t want to go over the border again in such a short period of time.”

  Diego sighed. “Well, hurry up. My home is becoming unclean, and I need to be serviced.”

  Charles said nothing. He wanted to tell Diego to take it easy on the redheads, and they would last longer, but he knew this would only upset him.

  “What of the others?”

  “Dead.”

  “Good. I don’t want them to be able to give any descriptions or anything to the police.”

  “I’m getting rid of their bodies one by one.”

  There was silence for a moment.

  “All that red hair…” Diego trailed off. Charles had the distinct impression that Diego was imagining his hand tangled up in it, pushing her head down to where he wanted it to go.

  Diego sighed. “Come as soon as you can. I need my redhead, and there’s a mayor in a town about fifty miles from here that has taken a stance against drugs. He needs to be killed. Or maybe just his family. I haven’t decided yet. But I know that you have the stomach for killing children in case I decide to kill his family.”

  Charles nodded. When Diego said “kill,” it sounded like “keel.” And yes, he did indeed have the stomach for killing anything, including children.

  “What’s my little redhead’s name?” Diego asked.

  “Faith.”

  Charles heard Diego chuckle. “She won’t have much of that left when I’m finished with her.”

  Chapter 6

  Rayner walked south on North Central Street in downtown Phoenix. People swarmed around him, all trying to get to their meetings and desks before 8:00 a.m. He walked at a steady pace, his eyes on the ground, pretty much oblivious to everyone around him.

  After dinner last night, they had gone over the plan for the day. The women were disappearing in the downtown Phoenix area, and they were chasing the last places the girls had been seen. Rayner was covering two city blocks looking for traces of the ash left by the Colonists. Undetectable by humans, the ash was something the Colonists left behind when they were in a heightened state, as they would be before a killing, or in this case, the kidnapping. He remembered the amount of ash that Saddam Hussein had left behind. Rayner and his fellow Warriors were always surprised that it went undetected by humans because the stuff seemed to come off Saddam by the bucketful.

  The Warriors weren't sure why the Colonist left an ashy substance at crime scenes. They did know that when the Colonists resided on SR
44’s moon—The Colony—they tended to lose their coloring and turn black. So, the Warriors assumed that the black ash was perhaps part of their beings, just as the glowing eyes of Rayner and his fellow Warriors were a part of them.

  He was hoping to recover an ash footprint or some clue as to which way the Colonist could have headed once he’d made his snatch. That was how they had caught the last Colonist in Reno just a few weeks prior. He had killed a woman, left her apartment, and left some of his ash on the sidewalk below a security camera, resulting in his picture being taken, the Warriors tracking him down, and his eventual death.

  After a lot of drama, of course.

  They were going on the theory that he’d pulled up next to the girls in a car, grabbed them, then drove away. Either that, or society had stooped to a whole new level of low, because if anyone had seen a girl thrown over some guy’s shoulder either passed out or screaming bloody murder, they would do something, right?

  Right?

  Sweet Jesus, he hoped so.

  Rayner was thinking that he should have waited to look around until all the worker bees were at their jobs and not getting in his way when she’d appeared in front of him. He saw her shimmer out of the corner of his eye, and he missed a step, but kept on going as if she wasn't there, which was what all the humans around him were doing. He took a deep breath and walked right through her, the scent of fresh mountain breezes burrowing itself in his nose. He studiously ignored her, as he had most spirits he came across. Seeing people who were trapped in the ether—the space of life on Earth and where their eternal resting spot may be—was so…uncool. It was a curse, as far as he was concerned. He found that if he acknowledged them, they were relentless in trying to get him to help them. Thank God most people didn't hang around in the ether. They either lived or died and went onto their next life. He didn't run across too many trapped spirits, which was a damned good thing for him.

  Unfortunately, there was little he could do to help those who were trapped. First, he needed their body, and most had no idea where that was located. He had never understood that. How could someone just lose their body? Second, he needed to be with someone the trapped spirit loved fiercely, and then that someone had to love the spirit back with equal strength. Getting those three things together in one setting was usually close to impossible.

  He had tried a couple of times on SR44 to help spirits who were caught in the ether, and then twice on Earth. He had failed, except for once. That was with Noah’s mate, Abby. The Colonist they had eventually caught in Reno slit her neck, and she had hovered very close to death. She had stayed in the ether because she had a fierce desire to get back into her body so that she could be with Noah again. She never left the bedroom where her body was, and getting her spirit back in there had been a piece of cake since she loved Noah with a savage intensity, and Noah felt the same about her. All other tries had been a complete failure.

  So basically it had become his creed to ignore the spirits when he did run across them. It kept his sanity in check and prevented a huge letdown for them. Eventually, they found their way to the other side.

  He walked to the end of the block and stopped, curiosity getting the best of him. She smelled lovely, reminding him of the forests back on SR44. He slowly turned around, hoping that he wasn't too obvious. The spirits always seemed to know when someone could see them. He checked his watch and made like he was looking at the street signs, as if he was lost. He looked up at the buildings, and then focused his eyes on her.

  She was stunning.

  She stood at average height, around five-foot-four. She was thin, but curvy, dressed in a brown shirt and black shorts that revealed a set of very nicely toned legs. She had the most amazing coloring he had ever seen—tanned skin like a Native American, and her fiery, red hair hung down to her lower back. She looked his way, and he quickly looked up at the street signs again. Out of the corner of his eye he saw her brown eyes staring at him as if she knew he could see her. Her facial features were strong, set in determination.

  He watched as she slowly approached him. He wanted to move, to not get involved with her, but he found his feet stuck, as if he had just stepped in a big fucking puddle of super glue. He swore under his breath and looked up at the street signs again. She planted herself just inches from him and stared up into his face. Really, why wouldn't his boots move? One foot in front of the other—been doing it a long time. It wasn't anything new. In fact, it was called walking, asshole. He looked at his watch again, then at the street signs. He did everything in his power not to acknowledge her, not to look at her, to meet her eyes. He heard her sigh. She stepped around him and continued down the sidewalk, her scent once again leaving his brain a little mushy.

  He exhaled deeply, his feet finally able to move again, and he quickly took off in the opposite direction of where she had gone.

  He hurriedly walked four blocks and found an IHOP. He slipped inside and found an empty booth in the back. The waitress slapped a menu down in front of him and poured him some coffee. He ordered some scrambled eggs, a stack of pancakes, two sides of bacon, and some hash browns. When the waitress left and he had nothing else to distract him, his thoughts went back to the spirit of the woman on the street. He found himself wondering what her story was, why she was trapped in the ether, and how she had gotten there. He wondered where her family was, who her friends were, what she did for a living. He’d slept around with human women—nothing like Hudson, of course—but he had never run across someone who literally took his breath away as she had—human or ghost. There was one main thought that kept parading itself across his frontal lobe over and over: She was the most beautiful thing he had seen...ever. A second thought was hot on the tail of the first: You need to leave her alone.

  As he stabbed at his pancakes and inhaled his bacon, he gathered his resolve to listen to thought number two.

  Chapter 7

  Three hours later Rayner met up with Hudson and Cohen in front of the Orpheum Theatre.

  “Anything?” Cohen asked.

  Rayner wasn't about to share his run-in with the spirit. Both of his fellow Warriors knew of his curse, and they also knew that he didn't like to talk about it.

  “Nope. Saw a little ash on Adams, but nothing that's going to point us in any direction. Nothing easy like a footprint by a security camera like last time.”

  Cohen and Hudson nodded and smiled. “Got a phone call from Noah,” Hudson said. “He's got more information for us, as well as pictures of some of the girls. He wants us back at silo when we're done down here.” He paused a moment and looked up at the sun that was almost directly above them. “So, are we done?”

  “Let's hit it,” Cohen said, making his way to the Hummer. Rayner and Hudson fell in beside him.

  ***

  They were seated in the War Room at the silo. The black marble table shined under the lights, the black leather chairs creaked under their weight. A large screen hung from one wall, maps from another, and the other two were floor-to-ceiling glass. They tossed a football around while waiting for Noah to show up on the big screen.

  They heard him before they saw him.

  “Talin,” Noah grumbled, “how do I work this thing?”

  “Just hit the green button,” they heard Talin answer. Talin was the tech guy of the group. Actually, he was a technical master. He hadn’t yet met a database, security system, or firewall that he couldn’t hack. Sometimes it took a while, but he always got through and collected the data he wanted.

  “Which green button?” Noah asked. “There's three of them!”

  “The one on the right.”

  “Your right or my right?”

  “Oh, for fuck sakes,” Talin mumbled, exasperated. Rayner, Cohen, and Hudson chuckled as they heard Talin get up from his chair and hit whatever button needed to be hit.

  “I see your technical skills haven't improved in the thirty-six hours we've been gone,” Hudson said as Noah’s face appeared on the large computer screen.

/>   “Hey guys, good to see you,” Noah said with a grin, ignoring Hudson. His dark eyes and brown, wavy hair filled the screen. They heard a soft voice, and Noah's head turned.

  “Of course, love. Come here,” Noah said, reverence washing over his face.

  Noah's lovren, or mate, Abby came into view. She sat down on Noah's lap and looked into the camera.

  “Hi guys!” she said waving, then tucked a lock of auburn hair behind her ear. Rayner was surprised the picture on the screen was so clear that he could even seen Abby's freckles across the bridge of her nose. She didn’t bother hiding the red scar across her neck where a Colonist had dragged his knife. Besides the scar, she looked innocent enough, but she could wreak havoc on a male's ego when she got near a pool table. The female was an excellent player.

  Rayner said hello, then watched Hudson. They had found out a few weeks ago that Hudson was Abby's father. Hudson didn’t have any intention of telling Abby, or anyone else for that matter, that he was her father, but Talin had provoked him into telling his secret. Besides Talin’s bloody nose caused by Hudson’s fist, all had ended good. It seemed Hudson and Abby had developed a close relationship, and Rayner and the other Warriors had grown quite fond of her as well.

  “How's my favorite daughter?” Hudson said with a smile filled with love. It was interesting to see the different sides of Hudson. Rayner had seen him kill without batting an eye and watched him in his womanizing ways. Nothing seemed to affect the guy. Stoic would be a good way to describe him. Either that, or a slab of concrete. Seeing him this way, actually showing affection for another, was new. But Rayner noticed that the smile never quite made it to Hudson's eyes, as if he was only smiling because he knew he was supposed to.

  Abby smiled back at him. “I thought I was your only daughter. Doesn't that make me your favorite by default? Or do you have another little secret you would like to share?”