A far cry from past experiences, my seizure-induced headache had faded relatively quickly. None of the typical creepy sensations that always accompanied these events had plagued me in the least. Even though I could still feel a troubling shadow falling across my life yet again, it was faint and nebulous. Nothing like the dark foreboding that always forced me into a brooding stupor.
I didn’t know if it was some sort of artificially conjured euphoria brought on by my wife’s contagious good mood, or what. Maybe I was just getting better at keeping myself grounded and centered. As basic a task as that is for a Witch, it was something I’d been having trouble with for some time now. In the end, I simply didn’t care what it was, but I knew one thing for sure- I planned to enjoy every minute of it.
I simply felt good. I was truly relaxed and happy for the first time in a very long while.
I felt my wife’s fist thump hard against my shoulder as she playfully punched me. “What are you grinning about, Row?”
I hadn’t realized that the broad smile had carved itself into my face, but I suppose it was just part of the mood. “Nothing,” I replied, rolling my head to the side so I could look at her. “Not a thing.”
“Sure, whatever,” she replied with her own smile, then asked, “So, did Ben say when he would be getting out of there?”
“Probably in a couple of hours is what he said. Why?”
“Well, it’s only a little after six right now, so that would still be early yet,” she replied, pulling her hand across her forehead and dragging some of the wild strands of hair from her face. “Maybe he and Allison could join us later for a pint or two.”
“I’m not so sure about that,” I replied, remembering that I had purposely not told her about the phone call I’d overheard. Truth was, I didn’t actually know to whom Ben was talking on the other end, but I had my suspicions. Still, it was best not to start a rumor, even if it was only between us.
“Come on,” she urged. “It’ll be fun. The Don’t Be Brothers are supposed to be playing tonight.”
“The what?” I asked, furrowing one eyebrow and squinting at her.
“The Don’t Be Brothers,” she repeated. “It’s a play on…”
“Yeah, yeah, I get it,” I told her as I nodded my head. “I’m just not sure I want it.”
“They’re really good, Row. I’ve heard them play before.”
“Okay, so speaking of playing, what DO they play?”
She shrugged. “Irish folk songs, what else?”
“You mean Irish drinking songs.”
“Of course, they’re playing in a Pub.”
“So that means we have to sing along.”
“Your point?”
“I don’t know any of the words, and I doubt if Ben or Allison do either.”
“Aye,” she said as she shook her index finger at me. “But I do.”
“Okay,” I gave in, reaching to my belt and grabbing my cell phone. “I’ll give him a call, but I don’t make any guarantees.”
I wasn’t actually sure if I would be able to reach him, but I was willing to try. If I was correct, and the earlier call had in fact been from Allison, maybe they had managed to patch things up by now. An evening out might even be just exactly what they needed. After all, it was Friday. They were adults. Their son was old enough not to require a sitter, so that shouldn’t be an obstacle. Looking at it that way, there was really nothing to keep them at home.
I thumbed in the speed dial code and put the phone up to my ear. I heard the ringer at the other end issuing from the earpiece, but halfway through the trill it suddenly became muffled. As I listened, a heavy, rhythmic thrum was starting to fill my ears and was effectively dulling the ambient sounds. I glanced around expecting to find a car with a radio blasting heavy metal music somewhere nearby. If that was the source of the noise, however, I couldn’t locate it.
When the second ring sounded, a coppery metallic taste began creeping up the back of my tongue, and I instantly tensed. The sensation wasn’t new to me, and I desperately feared what I thought it was about to bring. The false sense of security I had felt a few moments ago was now fleeing in earnest.
A tidal wave of deja vu slammed into me full force, and I knew it was more than just a trick of an overactive imagination. I had been here before, experiencing an unwanted psychic event from the passenger seat of my wife’s Jeep. I opened my mouth to warn her of what was about to happen only to have my words halted in my throat by the sound of Felicity’s own frightened voice.
“R… Ro… Rowan…” she stuttered, a note of confused terror like I’d never heard from her before was interwoven through the syllables of my name.
I turned my head only to see my wife’s normally beautiful face drawn tight into a pained grimace. Her teeth were clenched, and her back began to arch, pressing her body hard against the shoulder belt. A split second later she was shaking uncontrollably. Her head snapped back, thudding against the headrest as her eyes began to roll upward.
The Jeep suddenly lurched forward as her feet slipped from the clutch and brake, her right foot landing momentarily on the accelerator. I dropped the phone, grabbing at the steering wheel as I wrenched the stick shift into neutral. The engine coughed then settled to an idle, but we were still rolling forward.
“Felicity!” I screamed, but she couldn’t hear me. I could only barely hear myself as the driving rhythm continued to grow inside my head.
Her body was bucking in violent spasms against the safety harness, and she continued to vibrate with the physical tremor. Her arms were drawn up to her chest, turned inward, and her hands were postured like tight paws, her fingernails digging into her palms.
A trickle of blood ran from the corner of her mouth as she frothed, and I could see that she was biting her tongue. The back of her head continued to slam against the padded headrest, and I mutely thanked the ancients for it being there.
Sharp but distant noises began to invade the heavy beat in my head, and I recognized them as blaring horns. A quick glance forward told me that the traffic signal had switched to green. We were moving forward, rolling by the grace of leftover momentum, but it was far from what traffic would bear. Still, it was too fast for my liking considering the circumstances.
“Felicity!” I called out again, ignoring the futility of the action.
I was struggling to guide the rolling Jeep while at the same time unbuckling my own seatbelt. My first thought was to get my foot on the brake and bring the vehicle to a stop, but I wasn’t the most limber individual on the face of the planet, and I wasn’t sure I could get around my wife’s stiffened legs. In a hostile attempt to assume control of my emotions, a wave of panic began sweeping over me as it elected to challenge my desperate concern for Felicity and move itself into the top position.
A prolonged whimper emanated from my wife as she jerked against the tensed muscles of her body, and I realized it was a scream that couldn’t escape. The other realization that struck me square in the face was that the tables had turned. I was helplessly watching her go through all of the things she had stood by and watched me suffer so many times before.
I managed to release the catch on my shoulder harness and twist toward her, levering myself against the back of the seat. As I brought my leg up, my knee cracked hard into the dash, sending a lance of pain through the joint. I barked out an expletive as I pitched forward, and the back of my hand raked against the jangling key ring that hung from the ignition switch.
It was then that I realized the panic had taken over long before I’d ever noticed its icy fingers clawing at my stomach. A brief but welcome stab of lucidity hit me, and the logic it brought along set off a chain reaction in my brain. I reached for the keys and gave them a hard twist, switching off the engine. That done, I quickly wrenched the gear shift into first with a hard shove, doing little good for the transmission but bringing us to a lurching halt.