Later that afternoon, Shelby knocked on the door to the study.
Garrison had barricaded himself in there to rework some of the books. He now waved her in. “How’s Dad?”
“Worn out. Ruth put him through the paces today. Even got him doing a few laps in his bedroom with the walker.”
“Great.” The smile didn’t go past Garrison’s mouth, and the circles under his eyes spoke volumes. “Ready to divvy up the duties for this evening and tomorrow?”
“Sure thing.”
“Can you take tonight? I’ll stay up tomorrow night.”
Inwardly, she groaned. Poor sleep last night and none tonight. But how could she say no? He was burning his candle at both ends. “You bet.”
“We need to winterize the small barn tomorrow. So we’re looking at checking electrical and heating and then clearing out debris. We have to tape up all the pipes and insulate as many of the walls as possible.”
Quite a job, but necessary, since the rebuilt larger barn was still only a shell and wouldn’t be fully completed until next year. “What are you using for insulation?”
“Anything I can get my hands on. I might see if Odie would be willing to make a dump run tomorrow and get old carpeting and any blankets. A buddy out there’s been watching for items and setting them to the side.”
She nodded. “Not pretty, but it’ll insulate enough to keep the horses warm.”
“Cows, too, when they start calving.”
Her stomach clenched. “Yikes. You’re right, that’s in a few months. We’ll have to rotate the mother and calves in and out with the limited space. Maybe have to move the horses for a while, too.” Pinching the bridge of her nose, she said, “We’ll need to clear out some areas to use for pulling calves.”
He ran a hand over his head. “Can you take care of that?”
“Yes.” The weight of the responsibilities threatened to push her through the floor.
“You and I should be able to get most, if not all, of the winterization done before the guys return.”
“Agreed.” She paused, judging how much to press him. God, her brother was exhausted. He’d taken the heavy end of the load here at the ranch. But she had to try. “Have you given more thought to contacting Vaughn?”
“No.” Final. He dropped his hand on the desk with a thud. Heavy. Angry.
She filtered out most of the emotion and rubbed her temple to soothe the rest of it.
“Sorry,” he said, motioning in the general direction of her throbbing head.
“Comes with the territory,” she said. “I do believe Vaughn would like to know what’s going on with Dad and the ranch.”
Garrison’s face remained stone cold, but a hand rolled into a fist. “Then he should have stuck around to find out. Or at least called.” And just like that, conversation was over. She knew that look all too well. No amount of prying and cajoling would get her brother to discuss it more.
“Where’s Zach?” Changing the subject lessened the pinging pain of his negative emotions.
“He and Sara are out near the corral. He wanted to show her how well he could ride his pony.”
“Are they safe out there?”
“Why?” He slapped a hand on the wood, and she jumped. “Son of a bitch, Shel, I can’t keep everyone locked away. Besides, this is our own ranch. Our property. The house, the corral, the barn. Home base.”
“Should be safe here.”
“One would hope.” Rubbing his jaw, he said, “What’s worse, if we’re not safe in our own house, we’ve got a much bigger problem on our hands.”
“You’re right—”
A wave of emotion, curiosity laced with fear, coming from Zach, ran through Shelby. The trailing emotion of stark terror? That came from Sara.
Then something else dark and shadowed, cold and hot at the same time, and malevolent, smacked into her filters, staggering her back a step. Damn her headaches. She focused on that sensation and turned until she faced it. Outside. Away from the house.
She caught Zach’s feelings. Interest. Someone new approaching?
When she focused on whoever was coming near the main ranch buildings, a black, heavy nothingness hit her senses, weighting her limbs, blinding her for a second. She grabbed the edge of the desk to stay upright.
“What?” Garrison asked.
“Go,” she gasped. “We have to get outside. I don’t know—” She broke off contact with the presence outside and rubbed her head. “Something bad. Go now!”
He pushed back so hard that the chair flew across the room and crashed against a wall. He reached on top of a tall bookshelf and pulled down a shotgun. A handful of shells followed, and he loaded while he walked. The remaining ammo went into his pocket.
Shelby followed the rapid thunk of his boots out the front door, grabbing a sidearm from the closet case. They ran toward the side of the house nearest the smaller second barn.
Rounding the side of the barn, Shelby skidded to a halt right behind Garrison, their breaths coming out as puffs of vapor in the chilly air.
“What the fuck?” he muttered.
Zach sat on the back of his pony, reins clenched in his little fists. With eyes rolling, the animal pawed the ground inside the corral.
Sara perched on the rail of the corral, her posture rigid, gripping the post next to her. Her tension reached Shelby.
A silent black figure stood in the cattle field about ten feet away from the far edge of the corral. The constant wind had stopped, but still a tendril of air brought the sharp scent of sulfur past Shelby’s face. The herd huddled as far away as possible without leaving the fenced field.
The air turned stale, unmoving, and cold like the inside of an old freezer. It took effort to draw a breath in through her nose.
What the heck?
Shelby let down the filters and opened her mind. Tarry, hot, swirling evil coated her senses, and for a moment, her vision shut down. She mentally backpedaled out of the connection. Blinking until wan daylight reached her retinas, she caught sight of Garrison pulling Sara down from the railing and pushing her behind him as he raised his shotgun toward the dark figure.
Shelby met Sara’s wide eyes and nodded, trying to reassure her. This woman didn’t need to get caught up in the weird drama surrounding the Taggart family. She sure as heck didn’t need to get hurt.
“Son, bring the horse to the back of the corral,” Garrison said in a level, calm tone.
Based on the emotions zinging from Garrison and impacting her filters, her brother was anything but calm inside.
“Shelby, help Zach out of the corral and down from the horse,” he continued.
“Come on, Zach Attack.” She set the gun down and motioned him to the gate, keeping one eye on the motionless dark . . . thing facing them. The act of looking at it triggered a twist of nausea.
Once Zach and the horse were through the corral gate, Shelby grabbed the reins. “Get down.”
Zach fumbled to get a booted foot out of the stirrup, and she helped him dismount.
The horse chewed at the bit, nostrils flaring. Its ears were flat back against its head. Not good. She jogged him into the smaller barn, shut the door, and ran back to the corral.
With Zach now safe, Shelby placed his hand in Sara’s. Shudders racked Shelby’s body as waves of evil poured off of the creature in the field. It was all she could do to stay upright beneath the onslaught. Funny, the more she focused, the less she could see it. Maybe it had to do with the overcast day or the sun going down. She blinked and concentrated. No good. Still couldn’t focus.
“Sara, please take Zach into the house and lock the door. We’ll take care of this.” She nodded toward Garrison.
The two walked quickly to the house, Zach looking back, his face pale as he stared at his father.
Shelby picked up her gun and sidled around the opposite side of the corral, triangulating with Garrison on the figure and aiming her revolver at it.
“Who are you?” Garrison called out. “What do you want?”
The dark shape didn’t move but wavered, like a flag inside of a heat mirage. It was almost easier to see the figure better if she looked out of the corner of her eye.
“Get off my property.” Her brother pumped the shotgun.
Shelby’s heart pounded like galloping hoof beats.
A chuckle, or whatever raw noise passed for it, like an animal getting stomped to death, turned the blood in her veins to ice.
The figure raised a hand, and Shelby kept her gun aimed at the thing. “If you hurt one of us, the other will kill you dead,” she called out.
A strange voice, wide and hot like a roaring furnace, replied, “You’ve had your warning, Taggarts. Next time there will be blood spilled.”
Garrison’s shotgun didn’t waver one inch. “What are you talking about?”
“You thought you killed Hank Brand?” the figure said.
Of course he did, when an explosion went off in the shack where Hank had kidnapped Sara and Zach. Only, no one found Hank’s body, did they? Shelby concentrated. Was this what Wyatt meant when he talked about the Great One and a second coming? Somehow it had to do with Hank.
Shivers skidded down her spine.
That damned thing had gotten bigger. She had trouble pulling enough oxygen into her lungs.
Shelby was no weenie, but right about now, she’d welcome Eric’s solid presence, stream of consciousness and all.
“No one could have survived that explosion,” Garrison shouted.
A sound of dried branches scraping against each other abraded her ears. “No human survived it.” A blink of transparency and for a second, she thought she saw a figure inside the black shape. No way. No matter how hard she squinted now, all she could discern was the indistinct shape.
Then the figure’s size decreased. Even though she couldn’t see feet moving, he backed away. Or floated. What the hell?
A breeze of sulfur made her blink away irritating tears. When she opened her eyes, the dark creature was gone. What? None of this situation made sense.
Garrison’s face on the other side of the corral had gone deathly pale. She met her brother at the gate. The grim set to his mouth made her gut twist into more knots.
“Garrison?”
“Son of a bitch. Now we have bad things coming onto our property and threatening the people I care about. I’ll be damned if something makes me flee my own home.” He paused.
“But?”
“We have an old man, a schoolteacher who doesn’t know the first thing about defense, and my son. No Kerr. No Eric. No Vaughn. And innocent guests who shouldn’t have to deal with our mess. We have no help for miles.” A rare glimpse of frozen blankness on her brother’s face scared the living hell out of her.
“What do we do?” He didn’t answer. “Garrison?”
He pinned her with his amber stare. “We are fucked.”