3 Dark Energy

by John O'Riley

  “This is very strange,” Josephine remarked.

  Connie, Jake, and Alex turned to face her with expectation.

  “Are you sensing something from the kidnappers?” Connie’s expression was hopeful.

  Ever since Josephine had made it on the news, whenever she worked a case, the civilians usually knew about her psychometry and the fact that she was a six.

  “Are you sure Meg didn’t make it to the bus?” Josephine rose to her feet as she continued to evaluate the tendrils of energy wafting around her.

  “I’m positive. Her friends always sat with her and she wasn’t there. They never saw her go with anyone either.”

  “It’s like she vanished,” Jake said.

  “This house is full of the typical psychometric activity I normally come across so there was no ignotus enchantment performed. I don’t sense any intruders but that could be because they had active privacy fields.” Josephine’s contemplative gaze swept over the room. “This is most peculiar. It’s almost like there’s a trail of your grief that’s leaving the room instead of gathering in here.”

  “My grief?” Connie gazed at her with confusion.

  Josephine stalked out of the room and down the hall until she came to the bedroom. The others followed her and she hesitated at the threshold.

  “May I search your room?” Josephine threw Connie a questioning look.

  “Of course! I want to know if the kidnappers came in here.”

  Josephine stepped into the room which was moderately furnished with a king-sized bed, a couple of large dressers, and a couple of nightstands. She had to wait for several long moments to see where the darker strands of energy were heading because they drifted extremely slowly. She crossed over to one of the nightstands which was tucked away in the corner and opened the bottom drawer which contained a bunch of batteries, candles, and flashlights. Josephine reached out with her mind and gasped with surprise as a concentration of dark energy throbbed at the bottom of the drawer. Josephine reached inside and dug through the contents until she found a large black obsidian sphere the size of a fist. Josephine’s hand ached as she clutched it.

  “Is this yours?” She held out the black obsidian ball so that Connie could take a look.

  “I’ve never seen that before. It’s ugly.”

  “I’ve never see one of these before but I know what this is,” Josephine said.

  “Is it a dark energy collector?” Jake guessed.

  “That’s exactly right,” Josephine confirmed. She furrowed her brows with concentration as she realized the kidnapper had left behind psychic impressions. One common oversight people made who used privacy fields to keep secrets was the fact that touching something with your bare hands inevitably left trace energy behind. Even gloves weren’t enough of a barrier to completely safeguard against this leakage problem unless they were enchanted. Josephine’s lips curved in a grim smile. They’d made their first mistake and hopefully it was enough to crack the case. Information and memories trickled into Josephine’s mind.

  “The Valituras kidnapped Meg,” Josephine advised. She continued to allow the psychic impressions to flow for several moments before she spoke again. “They’ve been doing this for years. They use invisibility spells on themselves and wait until the right moment to kidnap the child. They’ve been ordered to collect a lot more dark energy than usual these last two months.”

  “So the Valituras is getting ready to do something big,” Alex hypothesized.

  “Yes, they are but this team has no idea what’s going to happen. We need to go. I can take us to Meg.”

  Josephine threw a pointed look at Connie. Alex and Jake nodded with understanding as they realized she didn’t want to discuss anything further in front of a civilian. They spoke a few reassuring words with Connie before leaving. Alex drove the police cruiser away from the house as Josephine continued discussing what she’d seen.

  “They were going to pick up the dark energy collector on the day of the ransom while Meg left the house to make the payment. They’re careful to pick families that don’t have the means to hire investigators on their own and who can be intimidated into not calling the police. And of course, they want one of the parents to be a homemaker so that their dark energy collector gets full exposure to their grieving,” Josephine explained. “The one who has Meg is Edison Rivera. I can give you directions to his house.”

  Josephine supplied them with the address so Jake could call it in on the radio. After that, she directed them to Edison’s house. Alex parked the car down the street and just past the corner so they weren’t visible in case Edison left unexpectedly.

  “Okay. I’m going to walk by and try to scan the house to see if he’s home. If we’re lucky and he’s gone for some reason, we can get Meg out of there right away,” Josephine said. She reached for the door to open it. “Pop the trunk.”

  “I never thought we’d need your props,” Alex remarked as he complied with her request.

  Josephine went to the back and pulled out a stroller and set it up. She unclipped the long satchel from her belt which contained half a dozen power wands and set it inside the trunk. Next, she wrapped the life-sized baby doll in a pink blanket so it wasn’t showing and placed it in the stroller. Alex and Jake watched her with faint amusement.

  “Don’t you look so cute with your precious bundle of joy?” Alex teased.

  “This wasn’t my idea,” Josephine reminded him.

  “I know. Standard protocols for blending into the background. Maybe I should accompany you. I could pretend to be your husband.”

  “I go alone. You spew junk energy like a coal factory which interferes with my scans,” Josephine said.

  “Surely it’s not that bad,” Alex argued.

  “You had sausage and eggs for breakfast this morning. You forgot to grind your coffee beans before you brewed your first pot of coffee. You stared out your window this morning watching your neighbor, Paula, exercise in the nude in the living room. Apparently, she doesn’t realize people can see her when she doesn’t have her curtains closed. You’re starting to have problems—”

  “All right! Enough!” Alex’s face was flushed with embarrassment.

  Jake gazed at him with curiosity. “I want to know what you’re having problems with.”

  “That’s none of your business,” Alex said.

  “It’s something embarrassing,” Josephine advised.

  “I see.” Jake’s lips curved in a smile of amusement.

  “Why don’t you get going? I’m worried about Meg.” Alex shoved the stroller forward a bit.

  Josephine refrained from revealing anything further about Alex as she walked away from them. She activated the glamour enchantment embedded in one of her rings that she wore on her left hand. Her silky black hair turned blond and her face changed to that of a stranger’s. The only problem with disguising yourself with an illusion was the need to constantly maintain the spell. Any lapse in concentration for more than a few seconds would cause the glamour to melt away and reveal her true appearance. This would make performing deep scans more of a challenge.

  “Be careful,” Jake called out.

  “I will.”

  Josephine set a brisk pace until she drew closer to Edison’s blue house. It was a middle-class neighborhood with decent-sized, well-manicured yards. Josephine opened her senses fully to the energy currents drifting around her which was a chaotic jumble from all of the neighbors. She sifted through the information as she searched for impressions that revolved around Meg or Edison. Unfortunately, Edison had left the house and returned more than once but she couldn’t tell if it was before or after he’d kidnapped Meg. Josephine couldn’t scan past the wards protecting the house to see if Meg was alone or with Edison at the moment. She continued to walk as slowly as possible without raising suspicions. Unfortunately, she didn’t obtain the necessary information which meant she’d have to try again. Josephine picked up the pace and decided that after a few moments, she would turn around
. Her cell phone rang and she answered since it was the chief of police.

  “Josephine O’Connor,” she said.

  “What’s the status on the situation?” Ben’s typical, rumbling voice exploded from her phone.

  “I did my first scan of the house and couldn’t pick up whether he’s home or not. I’m waiting a few moments so I can walk by again for another scan.”

  “I’ve got backup on the way to surround the house and Lieutenant Atkins will take charge once she arrives.”

  Jennifer Atkins was an enforcer with a lot more experience and she outranked Josephine who was a detective.

  “Understood. Do I really need to push this stupid doll around? I could just pretend to be a pedestrian,” she said.

  “We need to follow protocols. Mothers with their children tend to be invisible while strangers by themselves tend to stand out,” Ben explained.

  “All right. If I discover Meg’s by herself, I’ll try to disarm the wards. Otherwise, I’ll wait for the backup to take over.”

  “Let me know if anything changes.”

  Ben disconnected the call before she could respond. Josephine tucked the phone into her pocket. After a moment, she turned around and headed back the way she’d came. Josephine forced her psychic receptors to become fully active when she neared Edison’s yard again. Unfortunately, a jogger turned the corner with her German Shepard right at that moment. The newcomer was a woman in her thirties wearing a blue silk jogging suit with her long blond hair swept up into a pony tail. Her dog kept pace with her and was without a leash. At her current pace, she would come within a dozen feet or so of Josephine about halfway past Edison’s house which would inhibit a deep scan. Josephine couldn’t turn around and try again without making herself conspicuous to both the jogger and Edison if he happened to be looking out the window. She couldn’t risk making another pass for awhile because he may start to notice a pattern if she came back too soon.

  Josephine forced a faint smile on her face as she continued to keep her senses open. She was close enough to the yard that impressions from Edison began to trickle in. Josephine maintained a leisure stride along the sidewalk as she sifted through the psychometric energy and tried to access only the pertinent information. The currents of emotions and thoughts radiating from the jogger became stronger as she approached. Her first name was Rhonda and her dog was Buster. To Josephine’s dismay, Rhonda slowed down and focused on her with curiosity.

  “I haven’t seen you around before,” Rhonda said.

  “I usually don’t come this way but thought I’d get some exercise by walking farther,” Josephine fibbed.

  “Where do you live?”

  “About five or six blocks back.” Josephine leveled a brief amiable smile at the stranger then turned her gaze so she was staring straight ahead to avoid further conversation.

  Rhonda was still a short distance away and wasn’t easily deterred as her attention remained fixed on Josephine.

  “It’s not good for the baby to have her wrapped up like that in this heat,” she advised.

  “Thanks for the tip. I’ll remember that in the future.”

  Rhonda began walking backwards and keeping pace with Josephine. “Maybe you should think about removing the blanket now. She must be hot.”

  “My baby and I both have thin blood. We get chilled very easily.”

  The German Shepard drew closer to the doll and sniffed at the blanket with curiosity.

  “Would you mind calling off Buster?” Josephine asked.

  “How did you know his name?” Rhonda gazed at her with surprise.

  “I’m a category five.”

  “I wish I was a five or a six. I’d love to be an enforcer. I don’t think the government is doing enough to protect us from the Valituras and the vampires that are running loose.”

  “I assure you that there are very few vampires,” Josephine said.

  “How can you know that? Vampires look just like everyone else and they walk among us in the daylight. After they drink your blood, the puncture marks they leave in your neck heal up after just a few minutes and your memory goes away so you could be a regular, unwilling donor for years and never even have the slightest idea of what’s happening to you. I have a friend who thinks she gets fed on because she’s always tired and weak all the time. She went to the doctor and he said she has slight anemia which happens when you’re blood is drained all the time,” Rhonda said.

  Before Josephine could respond, Buster clamped his jaws around the two ends of the blanket and plucked the doll off the stroller. He rushed over to Edison’s yard before either of the two women could reach for him. Josephine gasped in alarm as she was afraid the doll would slip loose and reveal itself.

  “Buster! Put that baby down!” Rhonda commanded. Her dog completely ignored her. “Buster, heal!” She threw Josephine an apologetic gaze. “I’m so sorry. He’s never done this before.”

  “I should hope not.”

  Rhonda stepped into the yard and knelt down so she was eye-level with her pet.

  “Come on, Buster. Bring me the baby. Come here, boy.”

  Josephine forced herself to stand very still so she wouldn’t distract the dog. Buster remained standing with the bundle of blanket dangling from his jaw as he stared at his owner. Rhonda kept herself hunched down to the ground but shuffled forward a bit. Her dog countered by backing away which brought him closer to Edison’s house.

  “I want you to come here right now or you’re not going to get any treats today!” Rhonda leveled a stern look at her pet.

  The front door to the house opened and Edison emerged with an angry scowl on his face. Josephine swallowed as a cold dread washed over her.

  “Get that damned dog off my property,” he said heatedly.

  “I’m so sorry! He snatched this woman’s baby before I could stop him,” Rhonda apologized.

  Edison possessed an arsenal of hidden enchantments which radiated currents of power that Josephine easily detected. He must have seen what had occurred through his window because he kept his hostile glare centered on Rhonda.

  “That stupid mutt should be put down,” Edison snarled.

  Josephine extended the palm of her right hand towards the dark wizard and cast a knockout spell. Edison stumbled backward a couple of steps then collapsed in an unconscious heap. Josephine heaved a sigh of relief as she’d taken a risk. It would have only taken him a split second to activate his protective enchantments.

  Rhonda regarded her with shocked disbelief. “I can’t believe you did that!”

  “He had it coming.”

  “Your baby is really calm. I can’t believe she hasn’t started crying her head off by now.”

  Josephine’s glamour melted away to reveal her true identity. Rhonda gaped at her with surprise and slowly straightened to her full height. An instant later, comprehension lit her face.

  “You’re Josephine O’Connor!” she exclaimed.

  “That’s me.”

  “You said you’re a five.”

  “I was undercover.” Josephine strode over to Edison as she pulled out her enchanted handcuffs she kept hidden in her pocket which would temporarily bind his powers. Jake and Alex reached the two women as Josephine finished cuffing the dark wizard. Buster dropped the blanket which exposed the doll.

  “That’s not a real baby!” Rhonda exclaimed.

  “I was undercover. Remember?” Josephine said.

  “Oh! That’s right!”

  Josephine scooped up the blanket and the doll while Alex and Jake checked on Edison.

  Chapter 3

  Josephine and Jennifer stood guard as they peered through the one-way mirror into the interrogation room where Ben questioned Edison about the Valituras. Jake and Alex occupied the chairs on either side of the chief of police as he continued to grill the prisoner. Time was of the essence as the amnesia spell implanted in Edison’s mind would take effect sometime within the next two hours. No one had figured out how to reverse the memory supp
ression enchantment or prevent it from activating when a member of the Valituras was captured. Other officers were currently searching and confiscating enchantments in Edison’s house and Meg had already been returned to her parents. Ben was utilizing a truth-speak enchantment which manifested visibly as a silvery-colored energy field in the shape of a sphere which encompassed all four men. It compelled Edison to answer all questions and ensured complete honesty as it was impossible to lie under the influence of this magic.

  “I wanted to thank you,” Jennifer said without taking her eyes off the prisoner.

  “For what?” Josephine shot her a quizzical look.

  “Before you discovered the Valituras and got the government to overturn its policy to use restrictive enchantments on their category six enforcers, I was in constant pain. It wasn’t excruciating but it was always there in my head.”

  “Ben was the one who spoke out for the rights of sixes,” Josephine said.

  “But you deserve some credit for exposing the Valituras to the world as the threat that they are and for being the catalyst for change.” Jennifer turned and leveled a fervent gaze at her. “I just want you to know I’m grateful. The mind control and inhibitor enchantments were removed so I’m free now and without pain. I feel better than I have in years.”

  “I’m sorry you had to suffer through that.”

  “I’ve been accessing the vortex at the beach and it gives me quite a buzz.”

  Josephine grinned with amusement. “If you do it on a regular basis, you’ll discover it has restorative properties.”

  “I’ve noticed you’re looking about ten years younger. How is that possible?”

  Josephine hesitated because she’d discovered by accident that tapping into a vortex at least once every three days made a five or six immortal. She’d only revealed this secret to a few close friends.

  “It’s like I said, there are healing properties at work.”

  This must have satisfied Jennifer because her attention shifted back to Edison and the information he was revealing about the Valituras.