Wild and Wicked Ways Read online

  WILD AND WICKED WAYS

  (World of Touch of Gray 1)

  Wendy Weather 1

  aka Wendy’s Pennsylvania Posse

  Leia Howard

  COPYRIGHT

  Wild and Wicked Ways (Touch of Gray 2.5) by Leia Howard

  https://authorleia.blogspot.com

  ©2019 Leia Howard

  Published: 2019 December

  All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.

  Cover By: BetiBup33Design

  eBook ISBN: B07XMFFVDT

  DEDICATION

  Thank you to Veronica and Cole for the beta reads.

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  WORLD OF TOUCH OF GRAY

  CHAPTER ONE - Wendy

  Wendy adjusts her scarf to cover her entire mouth, trying to avoid breathing the cold Pennsylvania air deep into her lungs. She grew up in New Orleans which is known for its humid and warm, often sweltering weather. She and her twin brother, Sully, have lived in Albuquerque for the past thirteen years. While it can get cold in Albuquerque, or ABQ, it only occasionally snows, and no month had an average temperature below freezing. So, of course it’s chillingly cold with breezy snow conditions in Pennsylvania when she returns to investigate strange occurrences surrounding the regional forest at the West Branch of the Susquehanna River. The same ominous forest that originally caused her and Sully to be called to the area almost six weeks ago.

  Wendy’s first trip was at the request from family members of several children who were stricken down with an illness after being presumably attacked while in the forest. A suspicious and mysterious illness that the doctors could not identify let alone treat. It didn’t respond to antibiotics or other anti-infective medications and the cultures derived from the samples could not be identified. To their credit, the medical personnel placed the children in medical comas and fought the illness to a temporary standstill by treating the children’s symptoms, but eventually, the illness would have won. While the medical community did what they could for the children, the parents began to seek alternate treatments. They contacted a few herbal healers in the area, but no tinctures nor poultices worked. The healers then recommended going to a PsyWitch, but there were none locally. A few PsyWitches in outlying areas like Vermont and Ontario were contacted, but their professed ability was too weak to help, though they confirmed the illness was unnatural. They suggested contacting the generally stronger PsyWitches of the GT.

  In desperation, the children’s parents submitted an urgent petition for a PsyWitch from the Greater Tribal Council of the Americas, or GT, to examine the children and attempt to cure them. The closest PsyWitches to Pennsylvania were in Atikokan, in the Eastern Sub-Arctic Conservatorship or Council Bluffs in the Southern Plains Conservatorship. However, something about the area spooked the various tribes originally from Pennsylvania and the tribal police declined to escort PsyWitches to the area. The reluctance was deep as it survived the tribes not living along the Susquehanna since the GT was formed over 150 years ago, just after the American Civil War. All Psycepts traveling outside the borders of the GT in central and western North America require police escort and with the reluctance of the two nearest conservatorship police to come to northern Pennsylvania, alternate options were given.

  At first, the GT granted travel authorizations to the parents and medical staff to transport the children to one of the closer conservatorships. However, the doctors felt the children’s status prevented this. When the escort and transportation ideas failed, an urgent petition was sent to more distant conservatorships. Wendy was the lucky PsyWitch that granted the petition, dragging Sully, a Psycept police sergeant, with her.

  Wendy was able to cure the children, but it was a close call requiring several days of healing charms and cleansing rituals. The cause of the illness remained unresolved and Wendy felt compelled to return to the area with reinforcements to investigate what attacked the children and threatened their lives. Armed with additional information provided by a vision from the Graham siblings, Wendy rounded up companions interested in investigating the strange occurrences and hopefully neutralizing the menace.

  Speaking of the team, they might be fine with freezing, but she’s too warm-blooded to last long out here. “Let’s get to the motel. Once we warm up a bit, we can get the team together, eat, and finalize our plans.”

  Tiko and Libby fail to hide their smirks at her suggestion. The MacGillivray siblings are originally from Pennsylvania and were used to the cold winter weather. Tiko is present to put to rest any unquiet dead while Libby wants to investigate the unusual blood cultures obtained from the infected children. The other Psycepts in the party include Vito Mata, an Asomatous that may bespeak the spirits; flora PsySapient Maddie, and Weather Guide Diego Escudero.

  Wendy and Vito are representatives on the seven-member Psycept Council, but as no more than two are approved to be out of SWACon at one time, no one else in their party are council members. Weather Guides like Diego are seconded to the GT military and are not often granted leave to handle petitions. His mother, Gloria, is one of the few that have fulfilled the terms of her resident contract and would have normally accompanied Wendy. However, as the current head of the Council, Gloria couldn’t be the third out of SWACon and instead, sent Diego in her place while temporarily reinstating with the military in lieu of her son.

  Kyle Ngo, a fauna PsySapient and fellow council member was originally interested in coming but asked his mentor, Tewow to replace him in the group. At seven psychics, one officer is not enough to cover their large party and Sepulveda serves as the second to Sully in their police escort. Wendy feels that if the nine of them can’t deal with threat in the forest, then the situation is beyond hopeless.

  “I can try to disperse some of the cold air and biting wind,” Diego offers. “Something in this area is attracting the chill. Surrounding areas up to central New York state are cold as befitting January, but they’re nowhere near this cold nor windy.”

  Wendy is tempted but knows better. “No, thanks Diego. Once we identify the culprits and come up with a plan of attack, the weather angle will be up for grabs. But for now, we’ll wait until your abilities provide maximum impact. Plus, I want to try to avoid a rebound weather event, if possible.”

  “I don’t know what all of you are complaining about. This is just a brisk wind with a bit of chill. Nothing to get all worked up about.”

  “Hush, Vito. Not all of us are from Chicago where you eat this kind of weather for breakfast. And because you’re used to it, you are driving one of the vehicles,” Sully replies. “Who wants to drive the other?”

  “I’ll do it,” Maddie says. “Toronto native here.”

  “Great. Five in one vehicle and four in the other. Sepulveda and I will ride in opposite SUVs, but otherwise you can divide as wanted.”

  Sully, Tewow, Diego, and Wendy ride with Maddie to the motel while the others follow in Vito’s vehicle. As usual, there is a period of adjustment in dealing with automobiles when she leaves the conservatorship. Most people in SWACon ride bicycles or walk, some ride public transport or even horses. The few vehicles there are electric powered. The GT is the leading country in Green Energy and their transportation reflects it. Flight crafts are the only fully combustible engines in use in the GT. As such, flights are limited and passenger planes are medium aircrafts, ranging from eight to twelve seats. The GT has a few heavier aircrafts that can seat up to 25 people, but those are usually used by the higher councils. Wendy’s party flew to Pennsylvania in a medium jet, though their baggage was limited by weight and the plane made a couple of stops for refuel. The plane and flight crew are staying at the regional airport until Wendy’s group is ready to return. No need to waste fuel flying an empty plane back and forth when the crew can just wait a few days.

  It’s a forty-minute drive from the regional airport to the motel. On the drive, Wendy contemplates the forest situation. While the attack and subsequent illness of the four children are some of the most serious incidents from the forest, they aren’t the only recent occurrences. Despite it being winter, many animals have emerged from the forest instead of staying in their burrows and dens. Local pets and animal stock have become sick in the past year after eating forest shrubs, trees, and leafy plants. Frozen well water was discovered in various surrounding areas in the past month. While it’s common for well pipes or pumps to freeze in cold weather, wells are dug deep in ground and insulated from frozen temperatures. For well water to freeze is highly unusual. Tewow and Maddie are here to bespeak the animals and plants, which is welcome. However, Wendy wishes her party included a terra PsySapient to interact with the earth, but they’re the rarest of the PsySapients and of the few that live in SWACon, none were available for this excursion.

  The nearest hotel is a thirty-minute drive from the forest, maybe even longer with this weather. Since they all agree that closer is better, they selected a motel only ten minutes outside the forest. As their party parks and enters the motel office, Wendy’s pleased with the appearance of the place, two stories with a parking lot treated to keep the ice to a minimum. Hopefully the rooms are equally pleasant.

  “Good afternoon. How can I help you?” the desk clerk
asks as they troop in.

  “Hello. We have reservations for a block of rooms under the name Wednesday Randolph,” Wendy replies.

  “Yes, we’ve been expecting you. Your rooms have been reserved for three nights with the option to extend at the same rate. I just need to see everyone’s identification for check-in, please.”

  Traveling outside of the GT is interesting due to the status of Psycepts. Most Psycepts originally come from the US. However, to protect themselves from being drafted into service and being compelled to use their abilities against their will, many Psycepts applied for GT residency then renounced their US citizenship if accepted. Luckily, the GT issues provisional passports to its permanent residents. The original treaty with the surrounding countries at the GT’s formation granted limited travel to those that held travel documents provided by the GT. Standard duration of travel cannot exceed one week without prior approval from both the GT and the US. The US government also did not grant access to its federal land or buildings without escort. These stipulations are currently in effect and the GT uses the treaty for supplying Psycept aid to the US, Canada, and Mexico. It’s a good thing they’re going to a state forest with management support from surrounding counties. It’s much easier to work with a local government that requests Psycept assistance than the federal government that resents a presence they didn’t invite.

  Wendy and the rest of the party provide their passports to the clerk for processing. Only Sepulveda and Tewow are GT citizens with the SWACon turquoise passport while the everyone else has the silver GT resident passport. Wendy’s forever amused that each of the eleven conservatorships have their own color passport instead of one GT national passport color. It was explained to her that since the GT is a coalition of many dozens of various tribes, items to represent the entire country are hard to agree to. The establishment of their standard 13-month calendar and selection of a common legal language was contentious enough that the memory lingers still. Therefore, passport colors and a national flag weren’t going to be the hill the GT dies on and they left it up to the conservatorships. SWACon, or the Southwestern Alliance Conservatorship, agreed to turquoise as it’s featured in art, song, story, and colors of many of the conservatorship tribes. As for the flag, each conservatorship has their own flag and the national GT flag is a patchwork of the eleven conservatorship flags, plus the corners representing the four elements, problem solved.

  After the clerk checks in the party, he gives a brief spiel about the layout of the motel, the menu and hours of the diner next door, and the Wi-Fi password written on the keycard holders. He then hands all the cards to Wendy for dispersal.

  “Okay, Libby, here is your keycard for our room. Sully and Tiko, here are yours, Maddie and Sepulveda, Vito and Diego, and finally Tewow. And Tewow, thanks again for being the odd man out and housing the larger equipment in your room.”

  Everyone collects their luggage from the vehicles and heads to the rooms. Though not requested, the clerk gave them two rooms on the upper floor and three on the bottom floor. Who was Wendy to argue with chivalry, so the men get the bottom floor and the women the room upstairs. The rooms are large enough to fit two queen sized beds, a table with two chairs, a small reclining chair, plus a dresser and small closet area next to the en suite bathroom. Each room also has a mini-fridge with a small microwave on top.

  Many areas surrounding the forest have been affected with the recent events and the communities pooled their resources together to pay the expenses of Wendy and her companions. While it was the SWACon jet that flew to Pennsylvania, the fuel was paid for by the community committee. Because Wendy knows that the committee funds are limited, doubling up in motel rooms is the least her group can do. And apparently some community people will be providing casseroles and other food dishes over the next few days to cut down on the purchase of restaurant food. But that starts in the morning, for now, it’s Sunday evening and they’re hungry from traveling all day. Libby contacts Maddie while Wendy messages Sully.

  Hey, bro. Want to round up the guys and we’ll head to the diner? Also, have you let whichever police contact know that we’ve arrived?

  Yes, twin terror, I’ve contacted Deputy Peterson. He’ll be heading our way soon. And yes, we’re all starving and ready to go when you are.

  Wendy and Sully are fraternal twins, obviously, though they look very similar. Both have dark chocolate skin, natural black hair, and hazel-green eyes. Both are also average height, Sully is a couple of inches under six feet, while Wendy is just a few inches over five feet. They also have similar mannerisms and occasionally communicate in twin speak or even only via facial expressions. Though the last is more due to being best friends while raised by their maternal grandmother in NOLA.

  Libby nods when Wendy glances at her, indicating that Maddie and Sepulveda are chomping at the bit. Or Wendy may be projecting that part.

  We’re on our way down now. See you in a minute.

  Hopefully the diner food is decent, though Wendy’s sure that everyone’s too hungry for it to matter at this point.

  CHAPTER TWO - Diego

  Tiko, Sully, and Tewow are outside their doors when Diego and Vito join them in waiting for the women to come down the staircase.

  “Sergeant, will it be just us at the diner, or will someone from the community committee be joining us?” Sepulveda asks Sully as the women descend the stairs and the group begins walking to the diner.

  “Deputy Peterson will meet us in an hour, Sepulveda. Do you have your devices? We need to record the conversation.”

  “Yes, Sarge. I have everything.”

  “Good.”

  Tiko and Libby arrive at the doors first, Tiko holds the outside door open for everyone while Libby mans the inside door. Sully walks up the stand with a sign asking them to wait to be seated. A waitress promptly arrives to get their party details.

  “Hello. I just called ten minutes ago to arrange seating for a party of ten. Nine of us here now and the tenth will join us shortly. But we may be here for a couple of hours after we finish eating.”

  “Yes, I’m the one you spoke to. Just redd up two tables for you. We placed them corner like instead of one long table. Do you want us to change it up?”

  “No, ma’am, that sounds great. We’ll be able to speak to each other easily. Thank you.”

  “Are you from the South?”

  “Ma’am? Yes, from New Orleans.”

  “Well, that’s alright then. Younz, follow me.”

  Sully and Wendy follow the waitress while Diego and the others fall in behind them. They quickly sit around the tables as the waitress, Sarah, passes out the menus and takes the drink orders. Most order water and coffee, while both Maddie and Tewow ask for hot water for tea.

  “Tiko, why’d she ask me if I was from the South?”

  “Well, Sully, probably because you called her ma’am. Southerners tend to sir and ma’am everyone so it’s acceptable. But otherwise, around here, ma’am is taken more as a comment on a woman’s age.”

  “Oops, forgot about that. I guess that’s what happens when most of my trips outside of SWACon are either to the Southern US, Mexico, or Canada. They either don’t care or are too polite to object. I need to do better since I’ll be interacting more with US Psycept cases from all over. Don’t want to offend anyone unless I mean to.”

  “Well, if it’s any consolation, I remember being taught to call the police ‘Sir’ and ‘Ma’am’. You may not have as much pushback if you deal mostly with fellow police departments.”

  “Maybe. Wendy, do you remember me saying anything like ‘ma’am’ last time we were here?”

  “I don’t recall. Since it’s so common to us, it probably didn’t even register if you did. But if you want to call up the females that you interacted with to apologize, have at it.”

  Sarah returns with the drinks then takes their food orders. The diner is a nice space, not too hemmed in. It has the requisite long counter with swivel chairs near the kitchen. The rest of the large dining room is separated into smaller sections by three low dividing walls. Beige booths line the outside walls as well as border the dividing walls, while the center space of each section has tables. Their group has a section to themselves, but there are a few individuals at the main counter and others are scattered in booths in a different section.