Chapter 14: Back to the Ranch

The lead vehicle stopped with its headlights illuminating the body. Under Seth's direction, the second vehicle moved up on the left with the headlights illuminating the area to the left of the vehicles. The third vehicle was directed to move to the right of the lead vehicle, and aim the headlights to the right, illuminating the field.

Seth, Brennan, Pete and BB were out of the vehicles almost before they were completely stopped. Seth and BB both moved to face outward and cover the flanks. They used the front tires of the second and third vehicles for protection, and they held the ubiquitous shotguns they kept in the vehicles. Pete crouched beside the front driver's side tire of the lead vehicle with his shotgun at the ready. All three of them had grabbed their shotguns and jacked rounds into the chambers as soon as they saw the body.

Brennan crouched beside the front passenger side tire of the lead vehicle, and slowly looked around, as if trying to sense something.

Windows were rolled down, and shotgun barrels sprouted from both sides of the caravan, ready for whatever happened. Martha and Sheila covered the passenger side of the caravan. Liz and Susan covered the driver side of the caravan. Sheila and Susan, though covering the sides, were also watching the road behind them. All had jacked rounds in their gun's chambers.

The silence that settled over the party was only broken by the rumble of the still running truck motors.

Cory and Lian looked at each other askance at the quick actions of the group.

"We're shielded," Sean called out. "The shield covers the body, too. Can someone check to see who it is?"

"I'll go," Brennan called. "I don't have a weapon so the rest can cover me."

"Not necessary," Pete said as he stood up on the other side of the lead vehicle. "Sean said we're shielded. That means no bullets can get through."

"You've got a lot of confidence," Brennan said drily as he cautiously stood too.

"Yes, I do!" Pete said with a grim smile. "I've seen him in action."

Pete started walking forward and Brennan followed him.

The man was dressed in blue jeans, a long sleeved tan shirt, and military style jungle boots. There was a rifle partially under the body.

Pete aimed his shotgun at the body before carefully pushing the rifle away. Next, he carefully placed his fingers on the body's neck. His eyes continued to watch the darkness as he searched for a pulse.

Brennan's head turned as he seemed to look around them, but his eyes were closed. He shook his head and looked down at the body.

Finally, Pete stood and called out, "He's dead."

"Who is he?" Seth called. "He's too big for Pappy and certainly isn't Lian."

Brennan was looking at the face that was turned towards him with a frown. He reached down and rolled the body over on its side.

"Don't move him," Pete warned. "This is a crime scene."

Brennan grimaced but other than that, ignored Pete's warning.

"He matches the description of the other Thrall," Brennan called back. "The one that left with Eli," he clarified.

Sean got out and looped his canteen around his shoulder as he walked forward.

Everyone else followed Sean but the shotguns continued pointing outwards. Martha brought a flashlight that was over a foot long that probed the shadows around them.

"There's no one tainted by a Warlock nearby that I can sense." Brennan told the group. "I don't sense a Warlock either but they have hidden from me a few times in the past."

"Are you a, um, a sniffer like David was?" Udit asked.

Brennan shook his head and said, "No, but I've learned to sense their ... I guess you could say I can sense their evil but that's not quite right." He shook his head again and said, "I'll explain later." He nodded at the body and said, "That's the bloke that went with the Warlock."

Sean sent out a tendril of thought, and felt the essence of Laoshin and Pappy at the Ranch house. They were both awake and alert, and Sean breathed a sigh of relief.

"Pappy and Laoshin are okay," Sean informed the group. "They're at the house and they're awake."

The family members breathed a sigh of relief. Cory and Lian looked at Sean curiously.

Sean saw the look, and sighing said, "Later."

"Martha, would you shine that light down here?" Seth asked as he squatted beside the body.

The powerful beam played across the body.

"It looks like his throat is torn out," Pete said as he bent to get a closer look at the body. He pointed at the ragged, torn skin on one side of the man's throat. "Whatever it was left a huge bite mark." He looked into the darkness surrounding them again with a little more nervousness.

Sean searched with his mind, again, and breathed a prayer of thanks when he found Lightning. The big dog was calmly walking down the long drive towards the little group.

"Lightning's coming down the drive," Sean informed everyone. "Don't shoot him."

The big dog emerged from the darkness and calmly walked up to Sean. Lightning gently butted his head against Sean's chest. Everyone saw the dark stain around Lightning's muzzle.

Sean smiled and scratched behind Lightning's ears. "Did you do this, boy?" Sean asked the big dog.

Cory and Brennan took the question as rhetorical. The family knew better.

Lightning turned around and sniffed the body. Then he hiked one leg and thoroughly drenched the man's face.

"I guess that answers that question," Seth chuckled.

"I'll try to find out what happened, later," Sean said as he hugged the big dog's head.

"So much for the crime scene," Pete groused in frustration as he looked down at the wet face.

"Uncle Pete, you do know that we can't report this, don't you?" Sean asked.

Pete hesitated but said, "I guess you're right. What do we do with the body though?"

"We could bury him deep so the critters can't dig him up," Seth suggested.

"We could cut him up and feed him to the hogs," BB said.

"Ewwwww," Megan complained. "I don't think I would want to eat the bacon from the pigs then."

Sean rolled his eyes and asked, "Do we need the body for anything?"

"He can't tell us anything else," Seth pointed out.

"Maybe he can," Pete corrected his friend as he squatted beside the body again and started checking the man's pockets. He found a billfold and a used bus ticket from Lettsworth, Louisiana in the man's pants pockets. There was a matchbook from a Royal Six Hotel in his shirt pocket.

Brennan nodded and said, "That's where I caught the other two. It's a flop house in Phoenix on Van Buren street."

"What's a flop house," Megan asked curiously.

Brennan looked startled by the question, and fumbled trying to give an appropriate answer, "Umm."

Seth chuckled and said, "It's a hotel where you can get a room by the night, or by the hour," he explained.

"Why would you want a hotel room for an hour?" Megan asked curiously.

"Umm," Seth said, accompanied by quiet chuckles from the rest of the family.

"Well," Liz started, trying to figure out what to say.

"Finish Momma's 'Grey's Anatomy' and then I'll explain," Sean said. "It'll make more sense to you then."

"Okay," Megan reluctantly agreed. She didn't understand what a book on anatomy had to do with renting a hotel room. That didn't make any sense at all!

"Now, I don't think he can tell us anything else," Pete said as he stood. Getting back on track seemed to be a good idea.

"We know where he stayed in Phoenix. We know he came from Louisiana." Pete flipped the billfold open and quickly looked through the contents. "His drivers license says his name was Buford Scroggins and, according to his driver's license, lived on rural route 17 in Lettsworth, Louisiana. He has three dollars." He looked down at the body and asked, "What do we do with him?"

"So, we don't need his body for anything else?" Sean asked again.

"Not that I can think of," Pete said.

"Okay, stand back and let me see if I can get rid of it," Sean instructed.

Sean looked at Cory and Lian when he said, "I'll try to do this as slow as I can so you can see what I do." He looked at Megan and said, "You should probably watch close too. I'm going to try to do what I did to Shamash. The difference is, Shamash was alive, and this guy's dead. I don't know if that will make a difference."

Everyone moved back a few feet, except for Seth and Lian. They moved way back. They had seen what happened to Shamash.

"Unless you want to get splattered, I would suggest moving farther away," Lian said drily.

"It shouldn't be a problem this time," Sean said. "I have a better idea of what I'm doing and what will happen. Plus, I have time to plan a little better."

Sean tapped into the power of the water in his canteen for a moment. He created a shield of air between the body and his companions. Then he reached with his mind and converted all the remaining moisture in the man's body to energy. He included the moisture remaining in the pool of blood. He added the excess energy he had released from the canteen before releasing the combined energy into the man's body. The body vaporized into a brown mist. There were flecks of tan and blue in the cloud from the man's clothes as it slowly disbursed on the slight breeze.

"That's cool," Megan said excitedly. "Can I try it the next time we get a body?"

"I'm not sure I understand what you did," Cory said hesitantly.

"You did something to the water, created a shield, and then did something to the body," Lian said, her forehead wrinkled in thought. "You did the same thing to the water that you did to the body," she continued, nodding thoughtfully.