Chasing Lightning

by D M Fike

  I ran out of the lodge toward the nearest wisp channel that would take me to Cape Perpetua. I didn’t care how mad Guntram might have been with me. I was coming in as backup.

  CHAPTER 13

  THE FUNNY THING about heroics is when you first blaze off into the horizon to save the day, you feel all powerful, like nothing can stop you. Never fear, Ina the Shepherd is here! She can wield any element, draw any sigil! Hooray for the cavalry!

  It never occurred to me how difficult it would be to locate one grumpy old man. I wisped back to Cape Perpetua, confident I would spot him along the coast where we’d encountered all the other vaetturs. I checked the chunky whale beach first, still roped off and gross-smelling. Nothing there. Then I took off my hiking shoes and ran down the shoreline where I’d fought the last baby cockatrice. I covered all that ground plus an additional ten miles. I should have at least spotted some ravens that would indicate Guntram nearby, but no. It was as if he’d vanished into thin air. Not only Guntram, I also didn’t see a single sea lion or seal the entire afternoon.

  Toward evening, I had worked myself into a full-blown panic. My thoughts had become erratic, and I could barely focus on the task at hand.

  I pulled back underneath some sheer cliffs to catch my breath. Anxiety would get me nowhere. I needed to calm down. What would Guntram do? I found a smooth rock and perched on it to still my beating heart. Then I eased myself into a cross-legged position and clasped my hands in my lap. I closed my eyes, taking deep breaths and allowing various pith to flow through me, filling in all the crevices of my frazzled pithways.

  A kind of peace overcame me. The breeze caressed my bare skin. A hint of salt from the sea lingered on my tongue. Stone rested firmly underneath my thighs, and for a moment, a drumbeat reverberated from below. A steady heartbeat of a rhythm.

  A connection to Nasci herself.

  Clarity broke through my disorganized mind. Flailing around wouldn’t help. I should narrow my search. If I could track down Ronan, I might have a better idea of where the vaettur nest could be, and therefore, where Guntram might have gone. What I really needed was someone who’d been monitoring the local wildlife for pinnipeds. If I found out where they were hiding, I might find the cockatrice nest.

  Coming out of my mini-trance, I groaned as I realized who I should contact: game warden and all-around pain in my ass, Vincent Garcia.

  I jumped back to my feet and ran uphill, powering up my phone. Once I had several bars of reception, I found an online version of the article I’d read at the pancake diner, which included Vincent’s number. My throat went dry as the phone rang twice. Maybe this wasn’t such a great idea, but I didn’t have time to hang up as he answered on the other end.

  “Hello, Officer Garcia speaking.”

  Best to be direct. “Hey, Vincent. It’s me, that chick you shot at point blank range the other day. How’s it going?”

  Vincent ignored my lame attempt at small talk. “Miss, are you wounded? Do you require medical attention?”

  His concern threw me off guard. “N-no, I’m fine.”

  His voice lost its soft edge. “Then we need to talk. You are a person of interest in several cases of illegal wildlife activity.”

  “Yeah, that’s why I’m calling. Let’s talk about sea lions, shall we?”

  “I’m not at liberty to discuss active cases over the phone.”

  “Not even with your prime suspect?” I joked. I’m sure a lawyer would have told me to shut up, but let’s be honest, I probably wouldn’t have listened to one anyway.

  “Ah, no.” Vincent was not amused.

  I knew it was a long shot anyway. “Okay.” I sighed. Another dead end. “Have a good day!” I pulled the phone away from my ear to shut it down.

  “Wait!” he yelled loudly. “We should talk in person.”

  I hesitated. As much as I enjoyed the eye candy, meeting up with Trigger Happy seemed like a colossally bad idea. Then again, I didn’t have many other leads to find Guntram. I slowly put the phone back up to my shoulder. “I don’t have a lot of time.”

  “I’m free now,” he said. “Let’s meet at my office.”

  “Not going to happen.” I wasn’t entering enemy territory by myself. I scrambled to think of a secluded place close to a wisp channel that he could still access. “How about Cummins Peak?”

  “That’s out in the middle of nowhere,” he said, his tone more shocked than reproachful at my suggestion.

  “There’s a forest service road. Your government-issued vehicle can handle the drive just fine.”

  “It could be an ambush.”

  “It could be, but it’s not.” It was time to end this thing. “Look, I don’t have all day here. Meet me there in the next hour or so. And if you bring anyone else, I won’t show myself.”

  A few beats of silence passed before Vincent said, “I can’t guarantee I will meet these demands.”

  “Then don’t show up.” I powered down the phone before he could argue further, knowing I couldn’t use it again. Vincent could have put a trace on it.

  “You owe me big time, Jichan,” I grumbled as I dove deeper into the forest.

  * * *

  Cummins Peak lies about a dozen miles inland from the shore, at the end of a blasé hiking trail. I chose the area specifically because it wasn’t a hot spot for tourists. The peak itself had the dubious feature of a radio tower built into a clearcut meadow. Otherwise, the forest remained untouched, allowing absolutely no view of the valley or roads winding below. Neither picturesque nor technically difficult, the hike provided little entertainment for anyone, making it nice and secluded.

  It also had its disadvantages though. It could take Vincent an hour to drive out this far. And with no scenic overlook, I couldn’t exactly play lookout and watch cars approach.

  But I could use the foliage to my advantage.

  I located the trail leading up from the road to the radio tower and dove into the brush nearby. I found a comfortable spot to sit with my back leaning against a western hemlock, but still affording me a decent view of the radio tower. I could hear Vincent coming from this spot when he arrived.

  The waiting became torture though. I no longer had any sort of clock on me, so I had no idea how much time had gone by. The sun had already retreated completely from view when I arrived, but as I lingered, the temperature steadily declined, and the sky lost its bright blue hue. I bundled my hoodie around me and sent fire pith into my bare legs as Mars made its evening appearance. The shadows grew longer, enticing some of the night mammals to scuffle in the woods behind me.

  I had just about given up when I heard the distinctive sound of a car engine running, then a door slam somewhere in the distance. Not long afterward, a light bobbed through the trees toward me. I crouched lower as it passed by me, centering its beam on the radio tower.

  A flashlight.

  Silently, I crept forward toward the edge of the brush to view the person holding the light. Even though I knew to expect him, my pulse still quickened when I caught sight of Vincent heading up the path. He wore an official black jacket this time, his police badge clearly on display. I could sense the wariness in his measured steps, his stoic face scanning the surroundings for me. I bit the inside of my cheek as he scrutinized the spot where I remained out of sight. Not finding me, he turned away.

  “Hello?” he called. “It’s Officer Garcia. I came alone. If you’re still here, please show yourself.”

  My eyes darted back to the trail. I couldn’t know for sure that he didn’t have backup. I figured if he did, I would sense something, a disturbance among the nocturnal animals at least. They continued scurrying after Vincent walked by, completely unimpressed by his presence.

  Convinced I had the ranger to myself, I emerged from between two wildflower bushes. “Hey!” I called. “Glad you could make it.”

  Vincent flipped around in surprise, shining the flashlight in my face, his free hand on his holster. I kept my own hands up. Although my defensive charm
would stop another bullet, I wasn’t in the mood for another literal round.

  “Calm down, Vincent,” I said. “It’s just me.”

  His shoulders rose and fell with his jagged breaths. “I told you, I don’t like being ambushed.”

  “You’re not being ambushed.” So dramatic, this guy. “You’re the one who shot me last time, or have you forgotten?”

  Chagrined, he lowered his flashlight a little. “I haven’t forgotten.”

  A strange rush of emotions tumbled in my gut as I studied his concerned face. His remorse seemed similar to the same impulse that drove me to visit him in the hospital. It gave me a small connection to him, despite our wildly different lifestyles.

  “I’m fine. Seriously.” To prove my point, I slowly pulled back my hoodie collar to show the unblemished skin underneath. Even the faint bruise had faded.

  His expression softened, more like the vulnerable patient than the officer with the badge. “Then my gunshot didn’t hurt you at all? Which is good, but…” He trailed off, unsure of how to process this information.

  I really felt bad for him. I’m sure at this point he had no idea what to make of me. He must have been having some sort of existential crisis, trying to figure out how he shot a girl at close range with no visible aftermath.

  “Look, I get how all this must appear to you,” I said. “You think I’ve killed a bunch of animals for fun, but I haven’t. That goes against everything we stand for.”

  “‘We?’” he repeated. “Are you part of a gang or something?”

  I took an oath to not go blasting out shepherd secrets to the world, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t attempt to explain our mission. “We’re on the same side,” I assured him. “You protect this forest with your badge. My friends and I take care of the… the monsters you can’t see.”

  “Monsters?” he scoffed. “What kind of nonsense is this?”

  He couldn’t be that dumb, could he? “C’mon, you were with me on the beach and again in the woods, right?” I prodded. “Your body got heavier? You probably couldn’t even move? How do you think that happened?”

  The contempt drained from his expression, replaced by doubt. He attempted to explain it away. “I’d never frozen in fear before,” he admitted. “And I heard a strange clicking noise unlike any bird call I’d ever identified.”

  Clicking noise? There was no way Vincent should have heard the cockatrice’s strange vocalizations. If he had full-on ken, he would have at least seen Ronan by now.

  A mystery for another time. “Those noises were the monster. It’s the same thing that froze you in place.” I narrowed my eyes. “And it’s responsible for all the recent seal and sea lion deaths.”

  I thought we were making progress, but then Vincent had to ruin it all by throwing on a macho routine. His shoulders straightened in defiance. “There are no monsters,” he insisted. “Bigfoot doesn’t roam the forest preying on wildlife, but I caught you, a very real human being, yards away from a dead carcass, disturbing a harbor seal herd.”

  “You’re joking, right? I wasn’t hurting the seals. You think I slashed them with a knife or something?”

  “They cowered away from you,” Vincent pointed out. “They were terrified. I saw it with my own eyes.”

  I groaned. Of course, that’s how it would appear to Vincent since he couldn’t see the cockatrice. “They were clearing a path for me,” I tried to explain.

  Vincent pulled his gun on me before I knew his intentions. “You were at Neptune’s viewpoint with the sperm whale too. There are too many coincidences for you not to be involved.”

  At least I still had my hands raised, so he wouldn’t shoot me again immediately. “You really think someone with my small frame could do all these things?”

  “You’re able to do things I can’t explain.” He took a step closer to me. “Like appear and disappear into thin air and take bullets without a scratch. I need to know how you operate, and specifically, what you’ve been doing for the last forty-eight hours.”

  This piqued my interest. Vincent must have been investigating something that’d happened while I’d been knocked out. Maybe it had something to do with Guntram’s disappearance. “Why do you care what I’ve been up to the last couple of days?”

  “That’s for us to discuss in an interrogation room,” he growled. “I’m placing you under arrest.”

  I hesitated as he took a few steps toward me. It sounded like he did have information that I needed. Part of me wanted to stay and try to coax it out of him.

  But I would be useless locked away in a jail cell. I might be able to bust out with magic, true, but it wasn’t a sure thing. Plus, I would be violating all sorts of shepherd codes performing a jailbreak with sigils.

  I voiced my decision aloud. “I’m not going with you.”

  He took a threatening step forward. “You don’t have much choice.”

  “Or what? You’ll shoot me again?”

  That’s when the remorse returned to his face. I felt 80% confident that this guy did not like shooting people, which worked to my advantage because I hated getting shot at. I decided to accept the risk.

  I bolted straight into the forest.

  For a few blood-pumping seconds, I waited for the sound of gunfire to prove my instincts wrong. Vincent, however, did not fire at me. He instead plunged into the woods after me, cursing all the way. By the time I made it back to the wisp channel, he floundered twenty yards behind me, tripping through thorny blackberry bushes. I crouched near the tree’s base, blue lights that he couldn’t see twinkling all around me.

  “Wait!” he cried. “Who are you?”

  I should have plunged ahead into the will o’ wisps, but I impulsively paused to answer. “My name’s none of your—”

  That’s when I sensed the lightning pith.

  It came out of nowhere, striking me full force in the back. It felt less intense than a lightning bolt, but steadier, not the quick flash-and-done I was used to during a storm. I instinctively tried to redirect it out of my pithways, but it instead curved into my pocket for some reason. Unfortunately, this created a weird feedback loop, shoving more lightning back into my system. As the lightning pith kept crashing over me, wreaking havoc throughout my pithways, it eventually overwhelmed my senses. My mind shut down to spare me from continued pain.

  CHAPTER 14

  I WAS REALLY getting sick of passing out due to lightning.

  At least, I couldn’t have been out for long this time because I heard the car door slam as Vincent locked me in the back of his SUV. He wasn’t kidding about being a full-on cop. Plastic coated every surface of the entire back seat, no upholstery in sight. A metal grate sandwiched between two plates of Plexiglass separated the front and back sections of the vehicle. Vincent slid behind the driver’s wheel.

  Still woozy, my head tilted from side to side as I regained control of my body. While I could wriggle around a bit, my limbs refused to move. “What happened?”

  Vincent turned the key in the ignition. “I tasered you.”

  That slapped me back to full attention. “You did what?”

  “You obviously weren’t coming peacefully, and I needed to detain you in a safe manner.” Vincent steered the vehicle down the narrow forest service road. “So, I tasered you.”

  That explained the steady stream of lightning pith. Although I’d obviously been struck by much more voltage before, it’d come out of nowhere, catching me completely off guard. It made sense that a police officer would have a taser, but I’d worried only about his firearm. Live and learn, I guess.

  Oddly, I could still sense a slight electrical buzzing from somewhere. I closed my eyes, but it wasn’t due to any lingering lightning in my pithways. Instead, the tingling sensation emanated from my pockets, where I had stored the AA batteries I’d bought for Sipho. The pouch would have kept water out, but not necessarily anything else. When I had redirected the taser’s electricity, I must have inadvertently shoved more juice into them. Now the
y hummed with the extra energy. I tried to grab them to test my theory.

  My arms still wouldn’t move, stuck together near the small of my back.

  “You handcuffed me too?” I cried in dismay as I jerked my wrists around a few times, pinching myself in the process.

  “I can’t risk you escaping again.”

  “I bet you do this to all the ladies.”

  Vincent straightened, miffed at my tone. “I do this to every criminal I catch.”

  “You’re not seriously arresting me, are you?”

  “I’m bringing you in for questioning. You know something about the seal poaching. And you’re going to tell me what that is.”

  Great. This is all I needed in the middle of searching for Guntram. I slumped back in the rock-hard seat. For a brief moment, I enjoyed the irony of having charms full of pith plus a pocket full of lightning, but with no way to use any of it with my hands literally tied behind my back.

  But I still might be able to free myself. I tried to get a good look at the handcuffs but couldn’t twist myself around view them. Vincent noticed me squirming and asked, “What are you doing?”

  “Trying to figure out what the cuffs are made of,” I told him. “Metal or plastic?”

  “Does it matter?”

  “Yes,” I told him flatly. I didn’t tell him that depending on the metal alloy, I might be able to manipulate a little earth pith and slowly weaken its bonds and break the chain. Plastic, on the other hand, doesn’t occur in the wild and therefore, won’t respond to earth pith.

  He raised an eyebrow at me in the rearview mirror, but answered, “It’s metal.”

  Finally, a break. I pulled earth pith into my right index finger and drew a square with a slanted slash over the top. Then I rotated my finger to touch the thinnest part of the cuff chain, keeping a steady flow of pith from my core into the metal, hoping it would eventually be enough to set me free.