“Cooper. Honey.” Ash stood up slowly, as though he were approaching a wild animal. He neared Cooper, and gently raised his hands towards him.
Cooper tore his hands away from his face, only to see Ash’s concerned expression. To feel the gentle touch of Ash’s comforting fingers skimming up his arms, too. First arms, then shoulders. He leaned into the soft embrace, and welcomed the comforting words that followed.
“Don’t worry, Cooper. It’ll turn out okay. We just need to find out what’s going on.” Ash reinforced his words with a supportive smile. “I think you discovered something truly important.”
Neither of them had appetite for dinner that night. Cooper’s calm and composed exterior hid most of his external fretting from everyone but Ash, which made both of them ill at ease and in no mood to eat anything of substance on an already hot evening.
“How about we meditate a bit,” Ash suggested mildly. “Settle down some, think about the problem.”
Yes, yes they should do that. In Uncle Owen’s absence, they had to rely on their own ability to center and focus, on their own perception and analytical skills. And if they were hungry on the way back, they’d just pick something up.
“Jared could help with this,” Cooper said. “If I took him up to Graham Cornell’s place, he could check it out and see if it’s the same power signature.”
“Earthquakes don’t have a power signature, only people do,” Ash corrected. “But he’s busy now.”
“If only people have a power signature, why did I feel that... that discordance in the node?” Cooper grabbed his head as he spoke, choking each word out with obvious effort.
A cabinet door opened and closed, then a drawer. Then the fridge. “Here,” Ash said, putting something familiar and pungent under his nose. “I think you need this.”
Reishi extract. Great – he’d rather have a beer. Well, maybe not, but...
“And I got you a beer as a chaser.”
“You’re a miracle worker,” Cooper sighed. He downed the vile tincture, trying in vain not to cringe against the bitterness that twisted his whole face into a grimace worthy of a gargoyle. The beer, though? That was inspired. He twisted the bottle open and chugged a healthy swallow.
“No, just inventive,” Ash said. A few moments passed, before Ash broke the companionable silence. “Better?”
“I think so.”
“Then finish your beer, and we can go meditate by the river. We’ll settle down a bit, get ourselves straightened out. Only then we can tackle doing a good reading on that node.” Ash wrapped his long, warm fingers around Cooper’s as he said that. Too warm, maybe, but Cooper didn’t want to pull away.
“Okay,” he finally said. “If you promise me ice cream on the way back.”
“Ice cream for dinner it is,” Ash said in a tone so solemn, it almost made Cooper crack a tired smile.
ASH GRABBED THEIR sword bags, pulled the obi out of the duffel bag that contained their sword uniforms, and snagged two cold water bottles from the refrigerator. “I don’t think we need to change into the full regalia for this. This practice is for us alone. Just a bit of breathing, some meditation, a few sets of cuts. We’ll go through some of the moves you already know, okay? No new material, because the focus here is to settle our minds, and to find out as much as we can about what’s happening to that node right now. I want to know whether you’re detecting the same thing as at your client’s house.”
“And I want to know whether I’m detecting a real power-signature, as though it came from a person, Ash. That part? That’s sort of creepy. Do you think a rogue node could come, I dunno... alive?”
Ash shuddered, then thrust the water bottles at Cooper. “I hope not.”
Cooper grabbed them and cocked his head, like a dog that’s assessing whether or not he’ll get a treat. “Regarding meditation and stuff, are the power signatures the kind of an insight you’re aiming for?”
“Sort of?” Ash laughed uneasily. “Well, I tried to make sure that the physical technique is realistic, and that if I happened to be transported to ancient Japan, if I had to use my sword, it would actually work. But there is really no good way to test that, see? Dueling is highly frowned upon these days.”
They both laughed, a relieved kind of a laugh that told Ash that Copper was also relieved not to have to think of the node developing a sentient intelligence of its own. He ran with the tangent, happy to engage both of them in further distraction. “Honestly? Some purists would have an issue with this lack of formality, but then again, I don’t really owe them anything. As long as I can tell you which parts are authentic and which had been corrupted or borrowed, and give you the space to make up your mind about which way you want to go, then I feel I’m doing okay.”
Ash exhaled and looked at Cooper so hesitantly, Cooper had a feeling as though Ash had given him some kind of a dire confession.
“Okay,” Cooper said, trying to mollify Ash and soothe whatever inner battle he had been fighting. “Whatever works, right? I mean, I’ve come to enjoy sword for its own sake, but... all I really care about is bringing my energies under control.”
They left the house locked up. Once they were in the van, rumbling down the street towards the river, Ash asked casually. “How would you feel about going across the river and doing our focus exercises in Lawrenceville?”
Cooper stiffened. “But we’ll be closer to the contaminated area. Isn’t that dangerous?”
“You have your ground-stone.”
Cooper considered the situation. Yes, he had his ground stone. Yes, their focus was not on generating power, but rather to control themselves and settle their own minds. And while he was at it, he would be better able to discern whether or not he was right. He would find out whether the energies from fracking, which had been bothering Graham’s land up north, were so similar to the energies that somehow pushed their way into the node from the other side.
“Nothing ventured, nothing gained.” Cooper’s voice was all steel and determination. “Let’s do it.”
Ash parked the van in front of the rowhouse that was going to be theirs, and Cooper got out and looked around. The place where they hoped to build their house, their home, and their sanctuary, used to be visible through the open chain-link fence that surrounded it. Now the thick cover of vines formed an impenetrable privacy screen. Green leaves, heart-shaped and innocuous, were punctuated by the airy clouds of fragrant blossoms.
“When we build the house, you need to put up a wall of some kind,” Cooper said. “We will miss the privacy otherwise.”
Ash gazed upon the snarl of Japanese knotweed and wild clematis with apparent fondness. “Is there any reason why we can’t keep this all this biodiversity? I rather like how disreputable it looks. There is no need to advertise a nice home behind it.”
“I guess.” Cooper had an opinion about it, but he wasn’t going to share it. Maybe his earth-sense was pushing his hand, but he was uncommonly fond of structural, heavily textured stone walls. He loved them, he loved to design them, he relished in the building of them. Of course he did – the stone structures were as close to him as the water laden weeds were to Ash’s heart. Yet since this was going to be a house where Ash was going to feel comfortable, Ash could have whatever he wanted.
As though his thoughts were written on his forehead, Ash gave him a shy, chastised smile. “Or... or maybe we can do both. How about a nice, solid stone wall on the inside, hidden by the weedy fence on the outside?”
“Maybe.” Cooper leaned in and buzzed a kiss on Ash’s shoulder. Now that he could push the fencing issue out of his mind, he could focus on centering himself. His ground-stone hung on a satin cord around his neck. He felt its cool, smooth surface under his T-shirt. He didn’t realize how awkward he’d feel, walking down to the river on what was still a public, if seldom used, road with a sword bag in one hand and a rolled-up obi in the other. Yet Ash displayed no evidence of self-consciousness.
They walked past Ash’s row houses, not
stopping to say hello to Jared. They would do that on the way back. The hot, moisture-laden summer air hung heavy around them, and Cooper found himself wishing for storm.
Halfway down the river, and behind Ash’s beloved, weedy fence that ran parallel to the street, a thick stand of trees rose to shelter them in their shade on a hot afternoon. With a smile, Ash bent down and picked up one of the blue chicory blossoms that grew between the cobblestones. “Here you go,” he said as he stopped Cooper by grabbing his shoulder. “I always thought I would love lavishing flowers and chocolates and fine wine on my lover, yet it feels like we’ve had little time for such niceties. Will you accept this as a promissory note?”
The blossom was like a sky-blue starburst of fireworks in the night sky. “Thank you,” Cooper said. “Anything you give me, I treasure.” He set both his sword bag and his obi on the ground, and stuck the flower behind his ear.
Ash grinned at him, then at the poor, wound-up coil of a Japanese sword belt on the ground. “We should get you a nice bag for these things. If you want to be a proper martial artist, you need to be properly equipped.”
Cooper quickly picked the obi off the parched ground. This was yet another gift from Ash, yet another item he secretly treasured. But before he had a chance to feel guilty about tossing it in the dirt willy-nilly, Ash pulled him in for a searing kiss.
Cooper felt the ground-stone heat up against his skin.
“Wait,” he gasped against Ash’s lips. “We are here to settle down, not to turn the heat up. My ground-stone is telling me something!”
With a quiet, exasperated growl, Ash took a step back, then another. “I’m so sorry. Of course, you’re right. I am pulling juice off that ley line again, aren’t I?”
Cooper leaned back to a distance he considered safe. “I honestly wouldn’t know,” he said, knowing that his exasperation was clearly audible in is voice. “I wish I could see these things, like Jared does.”
They reached the dock in silence. The same weathered concrete dock where they had practiced sword for the first time, and where Cooper had challenged the very existence of Ash’s talents, and which had resulted in them making love for the first time. Neither had forgotten the resulting earthquake and the microburst storm that had made the river rise.
Cooper was still scarred by the realization that all those emergency vehicles were responding to something of their own doing.
Their heated kisses, and what had followed, now seemed both long ago and only yesterday. As Cooper scuffed the dock’s pitted surface, he was acutely aware that it had been this chunk of rock that had cradled them during their moment of passion.
Cooper was keenly aware that the trees, which had offered them their generous and much-appreciated shade, had borne witness to the mingling of their energies, as well as the devastating effect which the release of such energies could have.
“We are here for swordplay practice only,” Cooper said, as though his thoughts had been traveling in the same channel. “I better not trigger another earthquake.”
TEN MINUTES AFTER Cooper and Ash bowed to each other, Cooper began to experience that curiously settled and happy feeling that came with sword practice. Never in his life had he imagined that swinging a wooden Japanese sword replica through the air would bring him anything close to peace of mind. Yet here it was.
Up and down.
Lean forward, knees bent.
Sword up – bring your elbows down as you step.
Over, and over, and over again. They started out slowly, speeding up only when Ash was sure that Cooper remembered everything from their last lesson. Cooper had been hoping to get some new material. Maybe he could learn a new attack, or thrust, or a sneaky counter.
Not today though.
“Today, why don’t we just stick with what we both know.” Ash’s voice was smooth, gentle. Almost hypnotic. “We’re here for you to get all centered. You wanted to compare the frequencies of the node to the frequencies you had experienced at your client’s property.”
Oh, yeah. That little thing.
“On it,” Cooper said, as though he hadn’t gotten distracted by the gorgeous old moves, by their delightful symmetry.
He called a halt. “I would like to sit down for this,” he said as he eyed Ash uncertainly. This was, after all, a lesson. Ash always made sure that Cooper knew who was in charge, yet Cooper didn’t resent it. Not since he figured out that Ash wasn’t even aware of his slightly menacing and always dominant aura. His lover boy was, no doubt about it, a secret badass.
Not now, though. Now Ash was gentle and smooth. “Of course,” he said, and gave Cooper a mild smile. “Tell me what you need and I’ll see what I can do.”
Cooper found a spot he liked under the branches of the trees that arched over the other end of the dock, providing it with shade. He settled down on his knees, sitting in a comfortable seiza. Regular person might’ve been disturbed by the hard ground under his bare feet and thinly dressed knees, but concrete was, for all practical intents and purposes, a rock.
Cooper smiled. To him, rocks weren’t hard.
He took his bokken and set it by his left side, then set his hands on his thighs into a meditation pose that had become familiar since the spring.
He glanced toward Ash. “Could you monitor my energy level? If I do anything out of the ordinary, just tap my shoulder or something.”
“Yes.” Ash’s voice was as steady as the rock they were on.
“Okay.” Cooper let the sound of distant traffic recede. The lap of the waves against the concrete dock quieted in his mind, and the sun didn’t bother him here in the shade. Not with his eyes shut.
Then, like a mosquito buzzing around his hears, he picked up an annoying hum.
It was just in his mind, but that didn’t make it any less real.
“I feel it,” he whispered. He didn’t perceive a visual representation – that was Jared’s talent – but even without a seeing them, he felt the ley lines strong and disruptive in the mental landscape of his consciousness. He felt Ash, too, and knew that Ash had a feeler of energy tapped into the ley line itself.
Cooper would mention it later.
For now, he just followed the hum.
The node sat deep underground, swollen with excess power that had nowhere to go.
Cooper let his mind get closer, then closer still.
A firm hand squeezed his shoulder. “Enough,” Ash whispered. “Come back. You’re too close.”
Immediately, as though he’d flown in a dream, Cooper could tell the real from the not-real again. He fluttered his eyelids. His feet, which he had folded under him, ached with cut-off blood circulation. He grumbled and shifted around until he sat on his butt, with his feet stretched in front of him. “I can’t believe it’s been just a minute or two,” he said. “I better sit like this more often.”
“You were at it for almost twenty minutes, love,” Ash said gently. He then sat on the dock opposite Cooper, picked up his foot, and began to rub it to make the blood flow again. “What did you find?”
Cooper shook his head, as though to clear his mind and become fully present in the here and now. “The ley line which runs from the south has shifted. It’s full, and angry, and... yeah. It feels the same. It feels just like that disturbance up north.”
CHAPTER 10
The thirteenth day of August was the kind of a day to get Cooper all superstitious about numbers, despite his protestation that life was all about logic and engineering. Jared moved into the row house with the entry to the tunnels, but not even the gleam of the newly finished floors and the cheerful surfaces of the freshly painted walls could dispel his sense of doom.
Foresight wasn’t his gift, Cooper reminded himself. It was his grandma’s, and all he had was earth-sense. That, however, he had in spades.
So why was he so twitchy? He’d gotten laid. He ate right, he had meditated again, he... he was connected to Ash, and Ash was pacing like a tiger in a cage.
Ah – the connectio
n. Maybe it had to do with more than just the meshing of their power signatures. Curious to see what got the usually mellow Ash all worked up, Cooper got away from his computer and peeked into the bedroom. “Ash?”
But his lover wasn’t there. Only the made bed on the floor attested to his former presence, because Ash turned out to be rather particular about stretching the sheets in the morning, and arranging the pillows just-so.
He wasn’t in the kitchen, but the door to the porch was open, and through it, Cooper heard the light footfalls of bare feet against cedar planking.
“Hey,” Cooper announced his presence as he stuck his head out. “Is everything okay?” Everything should be okay. Jared was in the “key house,” which is what they called the third house from the right, which had an entry to the tunnel in its basement. He brought along Cooper’s old twin-size bed and his Honda full of boxes and bags, and now was probably busy settling in. They had their apartment all to themselves again.
Ash stopped and turned toward him. There was no mistaking that pissed-off expression on Ash’s face, lips pressed together and eyes blazing. Not that he would say anything. Ash seemed the type who’d stew rather than explode.
He waved a piece of paper toward Cooper. “Some asshole wants to buy the land by the river,” he said in clipped tones.
Oh? Interesting. “Why?”
“They didn’t say. It’s just a company, and it’s a shell owned by another shell. I tried to look them up, but they’re privately owned. I lost track, but anything this opaque is suspicious in my book.” Ash forced an exhale.
“May I?” Cooper took the letter and read it carefully. It was an offer all right – through their lawyer, some guy down in Crafton. “I knew the property prices were rising, but this is crazy,” Cooper said. “You paid ninety-eight grand for that land, and it was that low only because it has issues. And they’re offering over half a million?”
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