Betrayal - The Matlock Pack: Book Two

Chapter 24 - Cody

Tuesday 23 February

~*Cody*~

“I want you to try something for me, Cody.”

Raising an eyebrow, I looked towards Nahi with curiosity. I put away my books and leaned forward at the table I had been studying at, eager to see what she had in mind.

Nahi was frowning slightly, her lilac eyes staring unfocused at the tabletop between us. She blinked once, frowned even more, then shook her head like she was frustrated over something, her eyes slowly reverting to their natural grey. She got up from her seat, grabbed a deep bowl, and went to fill it with water. “Do you remember the vision you had when we found out you were a Bunyip?”

I nodded. It wasn’t something I could easily forget. It’s not every day you see your current best friend get shot and killed by your former best friend.

“I want to see if I can coach you through how to enter and maintain a vision for the same scene without my physical assistance.” She turned the tap off and turned to bring the bowl back to me.

My jaw dropped a little in surprise. I’d only entered one vision, and that was when Nahi took her down-payment for my deal with her to protect my mum. We’d not even attempted to try another one, and here she wanted to talk me through my own?

Nahi must have seen my alarm, as she smiled confidently. “You’re ready for this, Cody. I wouldn’t suggest it if I thought otherwise.” The bowl was so full, water was sloshing over the edges as she took each step. When she placed it down in front of me, I held it with both palms. The water felt on the cool side of room temperature, pleasant enough for whatever she had in mind.

My brow wrinkled in disbelief, but eagerness quickly overtook my doubt to try something new. It didn’t take long for a smile to spread across my face.

“Always so eager.” She chuckled. “Okay. Once you’re in the vision, you’ll be able to hear me, but I won’t be there with you. If you don’t feel safe, I want you to remove your hands from the water immediately. It will take you out of the vision.”

Taking a deep breath, I nodded. I hadn’t been able to interact with anything in the last vision, but Zelda had somehow known Nahi and I were there watching everything unfold. I didn’t know what would have happened if Zelda had touched me then, but I instinctively knew it wouldn’t be good.

“Place both your hands in the water and close your eyes. Focus on one minor detail you remember from the last time we did this. Let your body relax and your mind drift. Your wolf will be part of the tether to the here and now, along with the water.”

I felt a shiver run down my spine as I breathed out and put both my hands in the bowl, letting the water envelop me to the wrists. I recalled the thing that still tickled my nightmares on the odd occasion—the image of the Easter bunny display figurine melting in the store window—and closed my eyes. Another shudder flowed through my body, this time emanating to all my extremities. As soon as the trembling hit the spot where my hands met the water, my mind snapped in two.

“Stay as calm as you can, Cody,” Nahi’s voice rang loud and clear in my ears. “The initial transition will go easier if you’re relaxed.”

I sucked in a trembling breath and forced my body to relax. I could feel my brain struggling with what was going on. It knew where I should be, but I was forcing it to split into two different time periods. Darkness had surrounded me, but it was a different feeling to simply closing my eyes and seeing nothing. There was a tangible void around me now that my mind knew was wrong. It knew I shouldn’t be there, and it was doing everything it could to slingshot me back to where it knew I was safe.

“Focus on that detail. Let the shadows create the future you seek.”

I heard my breath hiss out as I followed her instructions. Sure enough, the more I focused on the melting bunny, the more detail became clear. Shadowy grey shapes formed in front of me; there was the storefront with the display that was just as much on fire as the last time I’d seen it. I turned to the left, knowing that Nat would appear in the middle of the street.

“Tatum, let Bells go. We all know it’s not him you want.”

There. That was Nat shouting, but I couldn’t see her. The fog was too thick. I had clear sight of about five feet all around me, but beyond that there was nothing but swirling white and grey clouds. I sniffed the air, wondering if it was the smoke from the fire that I knew was raging around me, but even though I could taste the acrid scent of fire, it was a distant taste. The dense fog was not smoke.

“You couldn’t save the town. What makes you think you can save your beloved?”

I turned around when Tatum’s voice pierced the bubble that I was standing in. Just like Nat, I could hear him, and I had a vague awareness of where he should have been standing, but I couldn’t see him through the impenetrable clouds.

I frowned and took a tentative step closer to Tatum, then another when I realised the empty bubble that I stood in was moving with me.

When the gunshot rang out, I jumped even though I was expecting it. A slight grunt sounded as I heard Nat slump to the ground.

“NO!”

I flinched again when Bells’ naked form darted through my bubble before quickly disappearing again. I must have wandered out into his path, which meant someone else was going to be heading my way.

Too late, I stepped back towards the store front only to have Zelda step into my bubble. She wore the same black robes that fluttered in the air that I had seen the last time.

I froze and held my breath when she paused, held her face to the sky, and sniffed. I blinked hard, wondering what was going on. In the last vision, she hadn’t stopped. She’d gone straight to Nat’s body to taunt Bells. Yet here she was, standing within my field of vision, sniffing the air.

“Cody…” she muttered under her breath, still staring at the sky.

My heart was beating so fast, I felt like there was no way she couldn’t hear it from the few feet away from me she was standing. My fingers twitched and I could feel the water in the bowl from where I sat in reality.

“If you need to leave the vision, Cody, just lift your hands straight up,” Nahi’s voice called through to me.

“Where are you, Cody?” Zelda murmured. She dropped her face to look around. Her eyes were glowing red as she slowly rotated. “I can smell you. I know you’re here.”

My teeth clenched when she turned enough that she should be able to see me.

Any moment now…

Still turning, she looked straight at me, but it was more like she was looking through me, not at me. She didn’t stop; her blazing red eyes probing the air around me, then past me.

Taking a chance to get away from her but remain in the vision, I took a half step back.

Her eyes snapped back to where I had stepped, but I could tell that she still couldn’t see me. Her eyes weren’t focusing like they should have been, even though she was staring straight at me.

“Cody, Cody, Cody… Why are you being so shy?” A sinister smile played at her lips as she spread her hands out in front of her. “We’re all friends here.”

No, we aren’t; you f*****g cow. I swallowed the snarl I felt threatening to erupt at her words. Even though she was still several feet from me, I wasn’t taking any more chances. I focused on the feeling of water on my hands and lifted them straight up.

Instantly, I was back in the present with Nahi sitting opposite me. I couldn’t remember opening my eyes; it was like I had blinked, and I’d been transported back, safe and sound, away from Zelda’s probing hands.

I let out a long, steadying breath and shook my hands, water droplets flying everywhere.

Nahi handed me a towel. “How’d you go?”

I shuddered as I wiped my hands dry.

“That great, huh?”

I placed my hand on hers. “I only had about five feet of visible space. Everything else was in dense fog.”

“Ah.” Nahi nodded in understanding. “I can fix that.” She got up and headed over to a drawer under her own workbench. She rifled through it for a minute before she held up a black rock that looked remarkably like coal, except for the fact that it was sparkling under the overhead lights. “Here it is.” She turned around and handed it to me. “Cyphirine. Pop that in the water and it’ll help your vision focus and become clearer.”

I studied it and was about to put it in the bowl when I realised how little water remained. When Nahi had put the bowl down, it had been so full the water was sloshing over the sides. Now, the bowl was less than half full. I frowned at the bowl, then looked at Nahi.

“The water powered your vision. If you use all the water in the bowl, you’ll return automatically. Until you can build up your own energy reserves, the water will be your conduit.”

Huh. That made sense. I nodded in understanding. The rock hovered over the bowl before I placed it on the bench next to the bowl. I’d need to top up the bowl before I tried again. May as well hold off on placing the rock in there until I’d finished. Placing my hands on the edge of the bench, I looked at Nahi.

“There’s more, isn’t there?”

I nodded grimly. I lifted one hand to place it on hers. “Zelda knew I was there, just like last time. She scented me as soon as she entered my bubble and heard me when I took a step back, but she couldn’t see me. It was like she was looking through me.”

Nahi c****d her head to the side. “Interesting.” She rose from her seat and started pacing like she always did when she was deep in thought. “More powerful than before…” She paused and turned back to me. “Did you get the sense that Zelda knew you were there before she entered your bubble?”

I shook my head.

She scratched her head in thought. “It sounds like your bubble muffled any noise you made in the vision. If you keep clear of her, you should have free reign to move around.”

I felt a grin appear. That was all I needed to hear.

“Could you tell if the vision played out the same as last time?” She walked over to me to take my hand so I could answer.

“It sounded the same. I heard Nat, I heard Tatum. There was a gunshot. I could hear Nat fall to the ground and then Bells screamed.”

Nahi sighed. “That’s what I was seeing. I had hoped you’d have a different perspective.”

“You think it’s set in stone?” Worry rushed through me. We didn’t know which Easter that vision related to, but if Nahi was worried about it, chances were high that it was the one coming up in only a few weeks’ time.

She looked at me with concern written clearly on her face. “It’s starting to feel that way.”

No. I wasn’t going to accept that. Letting her go, I got up, grabbed the bowl of water, and headed for the tap. Once the bowl was almost overflowing, I returned to the workbench, placed it carefully where it had been sitting previously, and plonked the black stone in the water.

“You want to try again?”

Taking her hand in mine, I nodded. “I’m not letting what I saw happen. There must be a way to stop it. We just haven’t seen it yet.” I stared at the bowl and huffed. “I’m going to keep trying until we figure out a way to stop it.”

More serious than I had ever seen her, Nahi let out a breath, nodded once and went to sit down opposite me. “Okay. Let’s get to it.”

~~~

“I think we can call that a day.”

Thank Goddess for that. I was beyond exhausted. Nahi and I had spent the rest of the day going back and forth in the vision. The cyphirine had worked exactly as Nahi had said it would—the impenetrable fog had cleared up on the very next attempt and I had been able to see everything I needed to. Plus, it looked like Nahi was right in relation to my bubble. Making sure I stayed well clear of Zelda, I had no further encounters with her even though I could see her. I felt invisible, which was exactly the way I wanted to be in these visions.

The water bowl limited the time I could spend in each vision. Once I used all the water, it would sweep me back to the present whether I wanted to go or not.

I made a mental note to get a bucket the next time I was grocery shopping.

Alternatively, I could always find a bathtub somewhere. Or use the spa downstairs. Although getting out of a vision voluntarily whilst sitting in water would be decidedly more difficult than simply lifting my hands out of a bucket.

Hmm. I would need to think more about this.

Being able to study the same scene again and again from different angles allowed me to discover things I normally wouldn’t have been able to see in a single viewing. On the third run through, I had been able to uncover where Zelda had perched to shoot Nat. On the seventh, I discovered it wasn’t a bushfire like I originally thought; rather, an out-of-control building fire that had spread to the shops and businesses surrounding the point of ignition.

On every run through, the only people I saw were Nat, Bells, Tatum, and Zelda. It struck me as odd that we were in the middle of main street during the day, but there was no-one around. Not even the local firefighters to stop the buildings from burning.

I still couldn’t determine exactly which day or year the vision was, but I knew that all the shops closed on Good Friday for the Easter weekend every year, and a lot of the families that ran businesses used the time to stay home or visit their relatives. If I had to hazard a guess, it made sense that the scene I was watching was the morning of a Good Friday.

It still didn’t explain why the fire brigade wasn’t fighting the fire, though.

Narrowing the timeline even further was the line from Nat: “He’s not my beloved, Tatum. He hasn’t been since New Year’s Eve.” Bells hadn’t been Nat’s beloved since the New Year’s Eve just been.

All the signs pointed that the vision was due to take place this coming Good Friday, due to arrive in less than six weeks’ time.

Which meant that Nat would be dead in six weeks.

It was a lot to take in.

I suddenly realised why Nahi always remained so mysterious all the time. She warned me against telling anyone, especially Nat, about what we’d seen, in case we created a worse potential future. We had to be content with guiding things in tiny incremental ways; enough to create change, but not enough that anyone could figure out what we were doing.

All I knew was that I had to save Nat from dying, without sacrificing Bells. I just didn’t know how yet.

As I said, it was a lot to take in.

I waved a tired goodbye to Nahi as I headed to the front door, glad to be headed home. I pulled the door open only to jump when I discovered a tall man with long brown hair and a scruffy beard standing on the other side with his hand up, ready to knock on the door.

“Hi, you must be Cody,” he said, a slight glint in his eyes as he lowered his hand to cradle a white bowl that was resting in his other. “My name is Amittai. I’m here to see Nahi?”

I studied him just as much as he studied me. A fitted black t-shirt tucked into dark grey jeans, several string necklaces hanging low over his chest, and heavy-duty black boots. He was this intriguing, yet odd, combination of hippie and industrial worker.

I looked back into the apartment to see where Nahi was. Sure enough, she was hurriedly wrapping her cloak around her while she rushed towards us.

“Amittai! I wasn’t expecting you until later.” Nahi clasped the door, somewhat hiding behind it, presumably to hide herself from a potential wardrobe malfunction.

A broad grin appeared on Amittai’s face as soon as he caught sight of Nahi, his face lighting up like he’d seen the sun for the first time in months. “Sorry Nahi. I was growing impatient with the wait.” He held out the small bowl that I could see now contained fresh strawberries which had been dipped in chocolate. “These are for you.”

I watched their interaction with great amusement and delight. It appeared Nahi had a date tonight. Smiling, I let my hand rest on Nahi’s shoulder. “Are you okay with him?”

She looked at me and nodded before returning her gaze to her date, a grin on her face as she took the strawberries.

“Okay, then. Have fun tonight. Remember to use protection.” I laughed when the grin dropped from her face to scowl at me before she smacked me on the butt to send me on my way.

“Have a good night, Cody,” she said pointedly. “See you tomorrow.”

Still silently giggling to myself, I saluted her and eased my way past Amittai and headed to the elevators, hearing Nahi’s door click shut behind me.

I grabbed my phone out when I saw Tate standing at the elevators waiting for one to arrive. “Hi Tate!”

He tilted his head in my direction. “Cody, right? Hi.” A tired smile graced his face.

“Yup, that’s me. Long day for you too, huh?”

Tate didn’t respond immediately, as the elevator took that moment to ding its arrival. He pressed the button for the second floor before he leaned against the metal wall. “You could say that.” He pressed his fingertips into his temples like he was trying to ease a headache.

“Got any plans for tonight?”

He looked in my direction, letting his hands drop from his head. “Nah. Amittai worked me hard today, and all I want to do is sleep.”

“I know the feeling.” I let out a puff of air in agreement, before recognising everything he’d just said. “Wait. Amittai is your teacher?”

The elevator dinged again to let us know we’d reached our destination. I followed him out before we stopped in the hallway to continue the chat.

“Yeah. You know him?” He leaned against the wall to face me.

“No. I just ran into him for the first time when he was visiting my teacher.” Huh. Small world. I mean, it kind of made sense. From our last conversation, Tate had said that he was also undertaking ‘specialised studies’. Of course, Takeshi would put them in proximity to each other. “I think your teacher might be dating my teacher.”

Tate raised an eyebrow at that, and a sly grin appeared on his face. “Really?”

“He gave her chocolate dipped strawberries.”

He laughed. “Hopefully he’ll get laid tonight, so he’ll be in a better mood with me tomorrow.”

I laughed, even though he couldn’t hear it. “Ha! I said something similar to my teacher. Fingers crossed, hey?”

He chuckled and held his hand up with his index and middle finger crossed. “We can only live in hope.”

I grinned. I liked this kid. He was funny. “What do you say we have lunch together tomorrow at one? We could compare notes on how they think their night went and play matchmaker to make things easier for us.”

He tilted his head to the side as he thought. “Why not? It’d be nice to have some company at lunch other than Amittai for once.”

I couldn’t disagree with his logic. I spent most of my lunches with Nahi poring over books. It’d been ages since I’d eaten outside, even longer since I’d had company. “Sweet. Meet you at the elevators at one?”

He nodded eagerly. “Sounds good. See you there then.”

“Yay! Have a good night, Tate.” I waited to see him head off towards his apartment before I went off to mine.

Nat was already home when I walked in. She was sitting on the couch watching TV, her legs stretched out on the stool in front of her and an empty plate still sitting on her lap from dinner. “Hey Cody. There are leftovers in the oven if you want some.”

Ooh! She’d cooked extra. I hurried to the oven to see what she’d left me. As soon as I opened the door, the delicious smell of pot roast wafted over me. I was dished up and sitting next to her on the couch in less than a minute.

“Thank you, Nat. This smell’s delicious!”

She chuckled. “You’re welcome, Codes.” She returned her attention to the TV when the ad break finished.

I dug in, almost moaning in delight at the tasty food she’d prepared.

“What’d I tell you? Eighty-eight miles per hour!!” I watched Doc Brown jump up and down in excitement after sending the Delorean on its very first journey.

“You know, I never understood this scene,” Nat said, frowning slightly. “Doc hauls Marty back to stand in front of an oncoming speeding car, so he had confidence that the time travel would work, but then shows such surprise when it actually does. Was he planning on having himself and Marty get run over?”

Still chewing, I looked from the TV to Nat, then back again and shrugged. “No idea, Nat. I always just enjoyed it for what it was—a brilliant movie. No, scrap that. A brilliant trilogy.”

“Fair enough.” She pursed her lips, crossed her arms, and settled herself more on the couch to watch the rest of the film.

I nudged her playfully to make her smile and kept eating, my eyes firmly on the unfolding story. What a great movie to watch at the end of a long day.