Page 44 of The Omega's Bloodline: Part One

My tongue felt heavy in my mouth. I set a palm over what had to be her tainted grave and a ripple of energy warmed me.

“Gaia, Great Mother, protect and keep your daughter. Hecate watch over her as she walks from this world into the next.” I traced my fingertips through the detritus and soil, letting my hand move of its own volition.

She was here.

She was waiting.

Nausea clawed at my insides and I braced myself against the ground, breathing slow and deep. Her translucent hand reached up through the soil and wrapped around my wrist. I jerked away, but there was no give in her grip. Panic choked me. She wasn’t hurting me, but she wasn’t letting me leave.

Find me. The soft voice of a young woman filled my head.

“I need you both to dig.”

Caden and Seth tore into the ground with their massive paws. The soil gave way. Earth and pine and decay filled my nose.

Virginia Burke. The voice was soft and sounded nothing like Caden or Seth. It had to be her name. Had she told me, or had something else? I wasn’t sure it mattered.

I tugged on my arm again, but she held tightly. I set my own hand over hers. “We’re coming, Virginia.”

Seth shook his paw.I hit something. Bone?

I leaned forward and used my hands to brush away the last remnants of soil. Frayed fabric and yellowed bone sat cradled in the earth. Gods. Who had done this to her?

I pulled out my phone. One bar of service. It was at least enough to phone the police. Numbness spread over me as I relayed our location and what we had found.

They were busy but would come.

My wrist was going numb in Virginia’s grasp.

“Please, let me go,” I whispered. “I can’t stay out here forever.”

Virginia’s spirit released me and rose up, sitting next to her grave. I snatched back my hand and scooted away from it, rubbing feeling back into my arm. Seth and Caden curled around me in their massive bodies, their warmth and closeness a balm I sorely needed.

I wasn’t sure how long we waited before Caden lifted his nose into the air.They’re close.

Caden melted into his small form and Seth followed suit a few moments before a pair of officers came into view.

“Ms. Murphy?”

I nodded and pulled myself to standing on wobbly legs.

“I’m Sheriff Barnes. This is Officer Williams.” The sheriff glanced over at the ground. “Christ. Whoever this is has been dead a long time. How did you find them?”

I hadn’t thought that far ahead. Seth booped my leg with his nose.

“My cats.” I cobbled together the story in my mind before spitting it out. “They got out and I ran after them. Found them digging. I kept going to see what they’d gotten into.”

“We’ll have to do an investigation and excavate the body,” said the sheriff.

I gave him my contact information and asked to be kept in the loop. Everything truthful I could tell them would get me hauled in for questioning so I stayed quiet, saying only that I was here on vacation and that I didn’t live in the area. Thankfully it was plain to everyone that the body had probably been there for decades, so I wasn’t suspicious. From the look of the spirit, that body had been there longer than I’d been alive.

“Are you able to get back out of the woods?” Officer Williams asked.

“I think so.” It was basically a straight line and I knew Seth and Caden would be able to guide me if I got turned around.

Virginia’s voice rang clear in my head.Thank you.

My legs shook as I walked in the direction we’d come from. It got harder and harder to breathe until I sank to my knees, letting the sobs tear free. Caden returned to human form and gathered me into his arms. He stayed quiet. There wasn’t really any comfort he could give after we’d found a murder victim in the woods.

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