Beacon's Spark (Potomac Shadows Book 1)

by Jim Johnson

  I pulled myself out of my surprised stupor and rushed behind him. “Wait, Malcolm!”

  Malcolm looked down on the man, who looked up and then pointed toward one of the humble tents set up near the top of the slope under the bridge. “There, man! There! Cubes is in there!”

  “Thank you.” Malcolm glanced at me, and then without another word started moving toward that tent.

  I reached down and helped Ball Cap to his feet. As soon as he was steadily standing, he stepped away from me, mumbling obscenities.

  I thought to say something, but then shook my head and hurried after Malcolm.

  Chapter 36

  BEFORE MALCOLM REACHED THE TENT, I tugged at the tendrils of ley energies I still had wrapped around him to see if I could slow him down. To my surprise, he actually paused. He turned to face me with a glare.

  “How are you doing that?”

  I caught up to him, at a loss for words. “I…uh…” I managed a chuckle. “I didn’t think that would actually work, honestly.”

  He glowered down at me. “Still doesn’t answer my question.”

  I sighed and let go of my hold on the ley threads. The cocoons around us dissipated into the ether. “I’m still figuring it out, Malcolm. I have some control over my abilities, but it’s a work in progress.” I stared at him. “I just…you should be careful. You really scared those two guys back there.”

  The flaps of the little tent near us whipped open. A Hispanic man with a full head of hair graying at the temples, dressed in rumpled flannels and jeans, poked his head out. “You two! Shut the…” He stared at us with wide eyes. He pointed toward me.

  “You! Old lady talked about you!” He ducked back into his tent.

  What the hell? I glanced at Malcolm and then stepped over to the tent, and leaned in. “Excuse me? What lady are you talking about?”

  A low moan issued from within, sounding like someone being ill, or like an animal caught in a trap. “Old lady told me you’d come! You’re here to take the tiger away!”

  “Are you…uh…Cubes?”

  I traded another look with Malcolm, who simply shrugged. “I have no idea what he’s talking about.”

  I pushed open the tent flaps and looked in. The man I assumed was Cubes was huddled up against the far side of the tent’s nylon wall, a thick gray blanket crushed in his hands. A handful of dollar bills, various denominations, were scattered around the floor. I guessed they had been hidden under the blanket but disturbed when he’d pulled the blanket to him.

  He stared at me with wide, bloodshot eyes. “You’re…you’re glowing.”

  Crap. I glanced down and, sure enough, my crystal was still ablaze with light. Even underneath a layer of clothing, I could see it clearly, like a flashlight under a bedsheet.

  I raised a hand toward Cubes, palm-out. “I’m not here to hurt you…”

  He nodded emphatically. “I know! She said you’d help…said you’d take the tiger!”

  I took in the entirety of the tent with a glance. “I don’t see a tiger in here…”

  He gave me a withering look. “Of course you don’t.” He expelled some air in a funny whistling noise. “And good thing, too. You haven’t made it angry. Not yet anyway.”

  Malcolm leaned in next to me. Cubes nodded toward him. “He might, though. Old lady warned me about him.”

  I frowned. “Hold on. What old lady? Who warned you about us?”

  Cubes gestured toward a corner of his tent. There was a little basket that contained an assortment of glass pipes and bowls, and several matchbooks. It looked like something out of a science lab.

  “I had a smoke last night. Old lady come to me. Said to watch out for you two…said you’d take the tiger. Will you?”

  Malcolm settled down on his haunches just inside the tent. “Cubes…do you know someone named Buster Jay?”

  Cubes’ eyes got wider as he stared at Malcolm. “Buster Jay? He’s…he sells me stuff, you know?” He glanced at me again. “Are you gonna take the tiger now?”

  I sensed a wave of anger pulse off Malcolm through the ley threads. I reached out and pulled together a few threads, and silently started to weave a protective barrier between Malcolm and Cubes, just in case. After a quick glance at Malcolm, I extended it toward me too.

  Couldn’t be too careful, right?

  Malcolm stared hard at Cubes. “What does Buster Jay sell?”

  Cubes shrugged and pulled his blanket more tightly around his body. “You know…whatever you need. Whatever you got the cash for.” He gestured toward the bills scattered around the floor. “Rock, weed…blow… he has it all. Or can get it. Even, you know…special orders.” The last two words came out in a whisper.

  I frowned. This was all beyond me. “Like what?”

  Cubes shook his head. “I don’t know…I don’t know, man. I avoid the crazy stuff—it’ll make you see things, make you crazy in the head.” He gestured toward his science kit again. “I just stick to the safe stuff.”

  I shook my head. The ‘safe stuff’ was crazy enough, but I wasn’t going to argue with him about it. I focused on Cubes as I gently stabilized the etheric shield between us and Malcolm. “Cubes, Malcolm’s trying to track down Buster Jay. Seems that he’s selling Malcolm’s sister drugs, and might even have her with him. Can you help us?”

  Cubes pulled his focus from me and turned to Malcolm. “Aw, man. Your sister? That’s messed up, really messed up.” He started to rock back and forth with the blanket clenched close. “Old lady didn’t say nothing about a sister, no she didn’t.”

  Malcolm sighed. “Look, can you at least tell me where I can find him? Buster Jay?”

  Cubes slowly stopped rocking. “Will you take the tiger away?”

  Malcolm rolled his eyes. “Yes, we’ll take the god-damned tiger away. Where is he?” The last question came out in an intense whisper. I could feel the ley threads quivering all around us.

  Cubes shivered and said, “Okay, okay, man. Don’t light me up, okay? Jeez. Tryin’ to help you here.”

  I frowned at that, sensing something unusual, but before I could say anything, Cubes added, “I usually meet Buster Jay at Banneker’s Park, man. Just across the river. He’s there on Tuesdays usually, unless something else is going down, you know?”

  Malcolm nodded. “That’s tomorrow. Any reason to think he won’t show up?”

  Cubes shook his head. “I dunno, man. I don’t think so.”

  I leaned in. “I think you should take tomorrow off from seeing him.”

  Cubes passed his look from Malcolm to me and back again. “Yeah…yeah. Good idea. I need a break anyway. The old lady, she’s coming to me too much lately. Gotta get her quiet, get her outta my head.”

  I sighed. I’d never been this close to an addict before. I couldn’t imagine living life like this. God, I was grateful I’d avoided the drug scene in high school and college.

  Malcolm asked, “What’s Buster Jay look like?”

  Cubes shrugged. “Tall, but not as tall as you. Wears a black beret, black trench coat, has a silver chaos pin on the lapel.”

  Figures. I shook my head and then glanced at Malcolm. “Is there anything else you need?”

  He glanced at me and then shook his head. He turned to Cubes. “I really appreciate your help, Cubes.” He paused, then added, “Can we do anything for you?”

  Cubes darted his eyes between us again. “Just take the tiger with you. I don’t want it no more.”

  Malcolm spread out his hands. “I told you I’d take it.” He glanced around the tent. “Where is it?”

  Cubes gestured toward the various bills spread out on the floor. “It’s there, man. Can’t you see it?”

  Malcolm traded a mystified look with me, and then we both focused on the bills. Most were ones and fives, but there were a couple tens and twenties sprinkled around. Definitely nothing tiger-shaped.

  I glanced at Cubes. “I don’t see any…”

  He made a snorting sound. “You don’t see it wi
th your eyes, Starlight. Use your big Eye!”

  My eyes widened as I stared at Cubes. Somehow he was connected. I couldn’t explain it, but he had to know something about…

  Malcolm cleared his throat. “The hell you talking about?”

  Cubes glanced at him then focused on me again. “He doesn’t know?”

  I shrugged. “Uh…not really. We haven’t gotten to that yet.” I focused on Cubes. “What do you know?”

  Cubes made another exasperated sigh and then leaned forward and reached his hands out toward the money. He pushed a few bills aside and then grabbed a ten and waved it at me and Malcolm. “This is the damn tiger. Now take it away!”

  “Christ, if it’ll get you to shut up about it…” Malcolm reached out for it just as I switched to my inner Sight. The bill in Cubes’ hand shone with a bright orange glow in my mind’s Eye. What the hell?

  I cried out, “Don’t touch it!” even as I reached out to stop Malcolm from grabbing it. Too late—I managed to catch his wrist just as he wrapped his fingers around the bill.

  In that split-second where all three of us were in contact with the ten-dollar bill, a bright blue flash of etheric energies, laced with threads of violent orange, flared in my mind’s Eye. A thunderclap sounded.

  In the seemingly-endless moment that followed, I sensed both Malcolm and Cubes bonded with me in some sort of strange etheric link with whatever was contained within the ten-dollar bill. Unbidden, images formed in my mind, and somehow I knew that both Malcolm and Cubes could see them as well.

  Faces formed in my mind’s Eye, faces of people I did not know. A young black man wearing a black beret—Buster Jay? Then his face altered shape into a different man’s face, then a woman’s, and more and more, hairstyles and facial features changing faster than I could keep up with.

  I took a deep breath, trying to slow down the slide show. I gathered some ley threads around me, but was at a loss as to how to make them help me control the flow of images. I sensed both Malcolm and Cubes struggling under the onslaught of images as well.

  I grabbed hold of the ley threads and forced an image of my meditation spiral to the foreground, and pushed myself down that path. I wrapped both Cubes and Malcolm up in cocoons of soft silvery light, and pulled their souls along with me, to try and keep the three of us sane and intact.

  I felt some movement. God, it was working! As I moved us along the endless arc of the spiral, the flow of images slowed to a more comprehensible pace. I shifted a part of my control to hold tight onto the ley threads, and then focused on the images. After a few moments, I had it.

  I called out to Malcolm and Cubes. “It’s the people! Everyone who’s ever handled this bill—from Buster Jay all the way back to the man at the printing press who cut it out of a sheet of dozens like it.” Good grief, this thing had history.

  But it also had power. Real power. I could feel another…presence… for lack of a better word, contained within the bill. And there was a deep rage contained within that presence, and yet…we somehow hadn’t triggered it.

  But I had to know. I reinforced the cocoons around Cubes and Malcolm, and then reached out a tentative etheric tendril toward the bill. When my tendril touched it, I caught the sudden image of a terrifying form full of glittering teeth and massive claws, a tiger-like form rousing from its slumber. It opened its bright orange eyes and focused on me, and then opened its massive mouth.

  The unearthly cry it uttered shook me to the core, not because it was scary, but because it felt so….human. The insubstantial force of the scream rippled through the etheric air and knocked me right out of the connection I had with Malcolm and Cubes. Everything went dark for a moment, and when I opened my eyes, I found myself flat on my back, still inside Cubes’ tent.

  I sat up slowly and looked around. Cubes was rocking back and forth again, staring at a spot in the air in front of him, almost as if he was in some sort of brainlock. Malcolm was sitting as well, and had the ten in his shaking hands. He dropped his hands to his lap and turned his head slowly to me.

  “God damn, Rachel. What was that?”

  I rubbed the back of my neck with a shaky hand. “I…I don’t know.”

  Cubes coughed suddenly and pulled his blanket around his shoulders and turned away from us to lie down. “Okay, very tired now.”

  I shook my head, a surge of fatigue pressing down on me. I glanced at Malcolm’s hang-dog expression—it was hitting him too. “Come on, let’s get out of here.” I crawled backwards out of the tent and then stood up and brushed my hands off on my jeans.

  Malcolm didn’t join me immediately. I leaned down and glanced into the tent. He was staring at the ten-dollar bill in his hands, an unreadable look on his face.

  “Are you coming?” I asked.

  “I just…yeah.” He tucked the money into his pocket and backed out of the tent.

  I glanced at him as he stood up and indicated the pocket I’d seen him slip the ten into. “You sure that’s a good idea? Keeping that thing?”

  He glanced at me and shrugged. “Hell if I know. Seems safer than leaving it here. And we did promise to take it with us. Cubes clearly didn’t want it.”

  I wanted to say more, but thought better of it, and just nodded. “So, now what?”

  Malcolm started down the slope back toward the parking lot. “I guess we go check out Banneker Park and figure out how to catch up with Buster Jay.”

  I had started to follow him but stopped. I’d had enough. “Come on, Malcolm. You got what you wanted. I’m not going on some stupid rampage with you.”

  He stared at me. “I thought I could rely on your help.”

  I nodded emphatically. “Yes! I can help you calm down, to meditate and to control your abilities so that you don’t blow up another gun or scare people by setting barrels on fire! I can do that.”

  I gestured vaguely toward the city. “But I’m not going to join you on some stupid warpath going after a drug dealer who might be screwing your sister. She’s a big girl—she’s made her choices. She went back to your house to get clothes willingly.” I focused on him and tried to pull the anger out of my voice. “I don’t think she needs to be rescued.”

  His brows furrowed and I felt a shudder through the ley threads around us. God, I was jacked up and plugged into the moment—I could feel the etherics all around him, and that ten-dollar bill. I could also feel his shaky control on the ley threads.

  He whispered, “I have to try, at least. To at least understand why she’s doing it.”

  I shook my head, but reached out and rested a hand on his shoulder. “Do what you have to, Malcolm, but be careful. Try to focus your breathing, and resist the urge to call forth the powers at your disposal.”

  I shook my head, and then rested my hand on his arm. “And don’t freaking do anything with that ten until we’ve had a chance to examine it together, okay? There’s power in that thing that we really shouldn’t screw with.”

  I pulled him down a little closer, so that I could stare right into his eyes. “I promise you we’ll figure this magical stuff out. Just…give it some time?”

  He met my eyes, and we held that moment for several breaths. I wished I could have known what was running through his mind. Finally, his eyes softened and he nodded. “I’ll be careful. I promise.”

  I started back toward the park. “All right. And I hope you find what you’re looking for from Buster Jay.” I sighed, and glanced at the sun starting to move low in the sky. I glanced at him, feeling vaguely embarrassed, even though I shouldn’t since he was the one who had driven me all the way out here.

  “It’ll probably sound petty, but would you mind dropping me off at a Metro station on your way to tracking down Buster Jay?”

  Chapter 37

  THE CLOSEST METRO STATION WAS SMITHSONIAN, so Malcolm dropped me off and then drove away, but only after I wheedled another promise out of him to be careful. I stared at his black Mustang until I couldn’t see it any more. I offered a silent prayer that he�
�d leave the ten alone, and then headed into the station.

  It was right at the height of rush hour in the city, and the Metro cars were standing room only. I was packed in with about a thousand other riders, all desperate to get out of the city and to get home.

  I managed to force enough elbow room around me to pull out my phone, but wonder of wonders, the battery was dead. I was going to have to start carrying extra batteries with me. I had meant to text Abbie and see if she wanted to meet up for dinner, but I had no idea if she had to work or was home. And I knew Bonita didn’t need me at the shop, though I was thinking it was about time I caught up with her. But…given how tired I was from the day’s events, I decided the best thing was to just head home and get some rest.

  The commute home took freaking forever. When I finally got off the bus near my house, I offered my heartfelt thanks to whoever was listening that I didn’t have to make that commute every day, much less twice a day like most city commuters did. If I had to do it, I’d probably lose my mind. I didn’t know how Abbie managed it. It did give me a newfound appreciation for what she had to deal with on a daily basis.

  I walked into the house and dumped my coat and satchel in the bedroom. I’d heard Penny and Vinya’s voices in the kitchen, so joined them there. Vinya was making dinner, and from the rich scents of saffron and garlic, we were going to get one of her Lebanese specialties.

  “Anything I can help with?”

  Penny glanced at me but didn’t say anything. She turned back to the dishes she was drying and storing. Vinya smiled at me and gestured toward a pile of vegetables on the kitchen’s center island. “You could cut the vegetables that go with the hummus. Thanks, Rachel.”

  I nodded and pulled one of the small chopping knives, and dove in. They all fell under my blade—red and green peppers, tomatoes, cucumber. As I chopped and Vinya monitored her dishes of kafta and makdous, Penny asked, “How was your day, Rachel?”

  I didn’t hear anything in her tone other than genuine curiosity. I said, “It was all right, I guess. I met a friend at Canal Center in Alexandria and then headed into the city for a little while.” All true even if it wasn’t the entire truth—Penny and Vinya definitely didn’t need to know the details. Besides, who’d even believe what I’d done today?