Free Richfield & Rivers Mystery Series 3 - Venus Besieged by Andrews, Austin Page A

say women cause their own diseases by not
speaking up."
    "Energy
flows out of you or it goes in on you." Callie was resolute, and the
concept she raised seemed so bizarre I really didn't know where to begin the
debate.
    "So
what does energy have to do with the wolf eyes that were so human?"
    "The
human used personal energy to travel out of body, taking on another form, and
that form was the wolf."
    "You
mean like a werewolf that's not a wolf but a person." I spoke carefully,
as if my words might crack the thin ice of reality and drown me in the dark
waters of another realm.
    "Many
powerful tribal people of both sexes can shape-shift."
    "And
why would anyone want to do that—leave a perfectly good body having a nice
meat-loaf dinner to stalk around in the woods and gnaw on a raw rabbit?"
    "To
see something, or experience something they might not be able to see in human
form."
    Elmo
suddenly let out a huge sob and crawled under the coffee table, no doubt
receiving mental images of people turning into wolves.
    "So
how do they.. .shift?" I said, patting Elmo to comfort him.
    "A
part of the soul leaves the body and goes elsewhere, sometimes with the help of
a rhythmic drumbeat. The partial soul can take many forms."
    "Is
this wolf-person.. .is that who attacked you energetically in the
bedroom?" I said, thinking I sounded like psychic John Edwards and should
be locked up.
    "I'm
almost certain it wasn't. I don't sense real danger from the person who
appeared outside our cabin. The other energy had a different vibration."
    "So
Manaba...is she a shape-shifter?"
    "Perhaps.
Her grandmother whom I visited once while I was with Manaba—"
    "Having
an affair." I completed the sentence.
    "A
cerebral affair," she quickly corrected.
    "Which
Biblically falls under thinking-it-isdoing-it-so-you're-guilty."
    "I
don't believe in guilt. I believe in.. .possibilities."
    "It's possible you had a cerebral affair with...a wolf, basically."
    She
paused to weigh that thought and finally shrugged. "Perhaps." True to
herself, she refused to view her past as anything but the natural course of events
her life was supposed to take, and I had to admit I admired her positive
attitude.
    "Don't
let Jacowitz know or I'll get a call telling me to change the characters to a
hooker and a wolf."
    "Is
a cerebral affair with a beautiful creature like a wolf more or less strange to
you than having sex with a woman who has sushi in her slits?"
    Callie's
remark was quick and struck me unexpectedly, like an animal who, viewed as
tame, irritated and hiding the feeling, chose one day to take its revenge with
one deadly swipe of its paw. I could have retaliated, but a piece of me knew I
deserved it. She was so good, so kind, so ethereal, and I was flippant on my
best day, sarcastic on my worst.
    But
Callie had struck out at me—slapped me as harshly as if she'd physically hit
me—and while I could take far worse from anyone else and battle back without
missing a beat, I was suddenly devastated by her attack—hurt. My throat grew
tight and I teared up. Had I been silly enough to believe that Callie would
never say a harsh word to me? Yes, I believed she never would. And why does
this ridiculous remark make me so upset?
    My
own ritualistic, threadbare jealousy was too ever-present with its dark strands
from which I could not extricate myself. Every new thought, every action led back
to a memory that triggered my need to attack Callie for perceived
unfaithfulness in the past, the present, or the future. But now she was caught
up in the jealous energy swirling around us both, the air full of it.
    "We
have to stop," I said tearfully.
    "Do
you see what combined negative energies can do? We're powerful together but we
must stay positive," Callie replied softly and put her arms around my
neck. Over her shoulder through the window, I spotted a woman striding across
the lawn on the backside of the cabin.
    I
dashed to the door in time to see a heavyset woman with a big flat face in