by Jim Johnson
He snapped his fingers on his free hand. “That’s it! Ley threads. I’ll get the words figured out eventually. Still getting the hang of it, you know? Sometimes I can grab one and use it to See, like you showed me, but usually just trying to grab one is a struggle.”
He shrugged as he drove. “I dunno know, maybe I just wasn’t cut out for this sort of thing. It’s easier when I don’t think about it, when I just focus on calling the fire and then letting it loose.”
I sighed. “We’ve talked about this before. I think it’s safer if you’re a little more deliberate about how your throw your power around.”
“Yeah, yeah. I know. I remember.” He shot me a grin. “You don’t have to tell me the same thing twice.” He snorted. “Well, maybe once in a while.”
I shook my head. “I just want you to be careful. The ley grid and the ley threads are more powerful than I could have ever guessed.” I thought about what I had done to Robert’s phone. “I’m still figuring out the limits of my abilities.”
“Oh? And what have you found?” He glanced into the rearview again, and then focused on his driving.
I glanced at him and then looked away to stare out the side window. “Hell if I know, Malcolm. I’m not sure I’ve found the limits to my powers yet.”
He made a little ‘whoof’ of surprise. “Damn, that’s cool. How’s that make you feel?”
I bit my lip, then let it go and shook my head. “Honestly? It makes me kinda scared. I’ve done some crazy stuff with my abilities, stuff that I would have never imagined. That’s why I try to be careful.”
“What sort of crazy stuff?”
I considered the question and then sighed. “I can create openings in the Veil and close them. I can cross over into the Holding. I can even use the ley threads to help keep me warm if I get cold.” I thought about adding the thing about blowing up electronics, but… No. Malcolm didn’t really need to know about that. Not yet, anyway.
He gave me a wide-eyed look. “Keep yourself warm? How’d you do that?”
“Well, I figured that we know ley threads can be used to generate power in an object that has a trigger set into it, right? So latent energy courses through every ley thread like a… a sort of live electrical current.”
He nodded. “You’ve mentioned something like that. You said Miss Chin can place threads in crystals and stuff, and sort of set them up with commands that can be triggered later. And you’re saying that touching threads to those triggers is what makes them work?”
I stared at him closely and frowned as he covered another look at the rearview. “Yeah, something like that. Look, Malcolm…is there something going on?”
He gave me a look, one he’d used on me before. I think he liked to think it made him look innocent, but I privately called it his ‘I’m hiding something’ look. He said, “Nah, you know. It’s cool.”
I frowned but resisted the urge to look behind us. I try to trust him, I really do. “Anyway, I figured that if I could take a ley thread and sort of hold on to it within my virtual grasp and sort of, you know, pull energy from it without actually channeling that power into anything, it might increase my internal temperature and keep me warm.”
He nodded, but the look on his face suggested he was distracted, and that he might not have followed me all the way through. “So did it work?”
“It did. I was pretty comfortable for a while.” I sighed and reached out to touch his arm. “But the thing is—I got tired fast. Remember I told you that the more we use our abilities, the more tired we get?”
He was driving one-handed while staring into the rearview again. He glanced at me. “Yeah, I heard you. You feeling all right now?”
I frowned. “Well, yeah. I’ve been saving my strength for our training session. I haven’t used my abilities much today.” Which was true—I had intended to meditate and practice this morning, but found that doing so on the same day we trained left me a shaking, tired mess by bed time.
I stared at him, pieces slowly clicking in. “Why do you ask?”
He nodded toward the rearview as he brought the car to a halt. “I think we’re in trouble.”
Chapter Nine
I FROWNED AS I STARED AT Malcolm, but then focused outside the car. He had turned off the highway into an industrial park, and even though it was the middle of the afternoon, I didn’t see anyone walking around. The place was mostly deserted.
“Malcolm, where are we?” I sensed a buzz through the etherics, one I usually felt just before Malcolm started to do some nutty stuff with his powers.
He kept his eyes focused on the rearview. “Heck if I know. Seemed like a safe place to pull over, away from a lot of people.”
I focused on him, fighting the urge to whip my head around to look at whatever had spooked him. I reached out to the ley threads and started to gather some around us in a defensive shield. “Why would you want to stay away from a lot of people?”
He popped open his door and glanced at me. “Cutting down on collateral damage. Thought you’d be happy about that.”
He shifted and got out of his side of the car. Alarmed, I popped my seatbelt and twisted around in my seat to follow him walking behind the car. Parked a few dozen feet behind us was a big silver Suburban full of guys in dark jackets and hoods. What the hell?
I gathered the ley threads around me in a protective cocoon then hurried to get out of the car. By the time I reached the back bumper, Malcolm had moved in between his car and the Suburban. I shifted to my Sight and saw the bundles of ley threads he had gathered up in his hands. Wisps of smoke oozed out around his fingers. He was getting ready to cut loose with his fists of fire.
The various doors of the Suburban popped open. Several men of varying ages and sizes piled out. A knot of dread formed in my stomach. All of them were armed with guns of one sort or another.
Malcolm raised one smoking hand. “Y’all just get back in your truck and take off. We don’t want any trouble.”
The gaggle of goons traded looks with each other. I saw the driver behind the windshield chuckle. One of the guys, dressed in a dark leather trench coat, said, “Buster Jay says he wants words with you, boy.”
Malcolm took a couple steps toward him, allowing the smoke to flow more freely from his hands. Everyone’s attention seemed to be on Malcolm. I reached out into the etherics and wove some threads into a protective shield in front of Malcolm, just in case.
Malcolm stared down Trench Coat. “I’m not going anywhere, much less to talk to Buster Jay. He got something to say to me, he can come here himself and we’ll talk.”
Trench Coat shook his head and glanced away from Malcolm. At some signal that I missed, everyone suddenly had guns out and pointed toward Malcolm. Trench Coat said, “That ain’t how it’s gonna happen, bitch.”
Malcolm shook his head, and in a flash of blue and bronze etherics, sped toward Trench Coat and grabbed his gun in one blurringly fast burst of speed. My eyes widened as I spread my hands to move the ley shield along with him.
There was a burst of bronze light and then a ripple in the air arcing away from Malcolm and Trench Coat. The thugs on the same side of the SUV stumbled back. Malcolm backed away from Trench Coat, but never lost the grip on his ley threads.
I focused on Trench Coat. The pistol in his hand had sort of melted and fused into a jagged plastic and metal lump that steamed like it had been super-heated. He took one look at the thing then dropped it, shaking his hand. “God damn!”
Malcolm stared at him and then at the others. “Y’all better get on out of here or I’ll burn down every last one of you.”
I guessed Trench Coat was the leader of this little band. He blinked a few times and then somehow found a backbone. “Maybe I just have my boys open up on you and your girl here?”
Whoa. That’s it. I took a few long steps toward Malcolm and plastered a grin I sure didn’t feel on my face. “Hey, now, no need to get like that.” I rapidly worked the ley threads and pulled the shield around to st
and between Trench Coat and Malcolm and I. “How about we just call this even and go our separate ways?”
Trench Coat stared at me. “There ain’t no even. Your boy here took something from Buster Jay. He wants it back.”
I shot a glance at Malcolm. Crap. Trench had to be talking about Malcolm’s sister, who had a recent unfortunate run-in with Buster Jay and was still in therapy for it, last I’d heard.
Malcolm shook his head, and again I got that buzzing sensation from him, like he was ready to just open up on all these dudes right now. Not good at all.
I took a chance and stepped in front of Malcolm and faced Trench Coat. “Look, friend. My buddy here has had a real bad month and is just this close to going off on some post-traumatic craziness. I don’t want anyone to get hurt.”
Trench stared at me and then past me toward Malcolm. “You gonna let this slip of a girl talk for you?”
Oh, crap. I sensed the power rush before I felt it, and, in the space of a heartbeat, I adjusted my control on the ley shield and shifted it to catch the fireball of energy Malcolm loosed toward Trench. I wrapped the threads around the fire and flexed my shield to contain the blast. There was another concussive burst of energy. This one knocked all of us off our feet and shattered the windows of the Suburban. I glanced back at Malcolm’s Mustang. I must have had the presence of mind to deflect the blast away from his car.
Malcolm and I got to our feet first. I shot him a glare and pushed him toward the Mustang. I turned and focused on Trench Coat, thinking fast. “You and your boys better get in your car and get the hell out of here. That’s not the only grenade Malcolm has and I don’t think you want to see what it’ll do to you close up.”
I shifted the etheric threads in my grasp, feeling the fatigue starting to set in. I better wrap this up, fast. I used them to sort of push Trench and the others toward the SUV. “So, go. Get out of here.”
Trench and his boys, clearly rattled, piled into the SUV. Their driver scooted the SUV in reverse and then pulled a one-eighty and tore out of there. I stared at their one intact rear light. Damn. They had actually left.
I clenched my hands to keep them from shaking, then turned and stormed toward Malcolm, who stood next to his Mustang with a scowl souring his face.
“Christ, Malcolm! The next time you’re being followed, how about throwing a girl a bone and freaking warn me?”
He flinched back. Belatedly, I wished I had thought to plug some etheric power into my voice. Miss Chin had done that while driving some point home to me on a couple of occasions and the effect had been…memorable.
He shook his head. “Dammit, I’m sorry, Rachel, but I didn’t want to get anyone else hurt. I was pretty confident you could keep yourself safe, and I knew you’d do what you could to shield me too. I just didn’t want more people to get involved, you know?”
He slammed a fist into the trunk of his car, denting the metal. I raised an eyebrow. I don’t think he even noticed the damage. Hell, I bet he didn’t even know his own strength when he got mad.
“I’m making mistakes all the time, but I’m trying, dammit!” He spread his large hands out toward me. “I didn’t ask for these powers, but I sure as hell am gonna use them when me or the people I care about get threatened.”
I crossed my arms. “I get it, Malcolm. I really do. But you’ve got to trust me.” I considered what I wanted to say, then added, “We’re working on being friends. We’ve been through a lot together.” I reached out and took one of his hands in mine. “And you may not realize it, but I trust you, Malcolm. And that’s not something I say to many people.”
Hah, that was an understatement. I stared into his eyes, and pulled ley threads together to try and forge a closer connection between us. “You need to know that other than Abbie, Bonita, my grandpa, and maybe Miss Chin—on the good days, anyway—you’re pretty much the only other person in my life right now that I trust.”
He glanced at our clasped hands and then stared at the ground. I squeezed his hand. “Do you get that? How important my trust is?”
To his credit, he didn’t stare at the ground for long. He lifted his gaze and met mine square-on. I saw little sparks of bronze fire deep within his eyes. “I get it, Rachel. I do. And I’m sorry. I won’t let it happen again.” He took a deep breath of air, expelled it in a rough ‘whoosh’ of air, and then sighed. “I trust you too, and that ain’t no lie. You’ve saved my ass a handful of times, and there aren’t many who’d even bother with that sort of thing.”
I gave him a sidelong grin. “I bet not too many people would want to put up with your shit.”
He snorted. “That’s a fact.” His gaze on me turned serious. “Still. Why would you trust me so much? I haven’t been much help to you.”
I squeezed his hand and then let it go. I gestured toward the car. “Can we continue this inside? I’m freezing my butt off out here.” I hugged myself tightly.
He cocked his head to one side. “I thought you said you could use the ley threads to warm yourself up.”
I snorted as I moved toward the passenger door. “Well, yeah, but why expend the energy when we have a perfectly good car right here with a heater?”
His frown slowly turned into a grin. “I guess you have a point.”
I glanced along the empty road behind us. “Besides, those nutbags might come back. Maybe it’d be better if we, you know, sort of vamoosed.”
He nodded over the roof of his car and then we climbed in. “Good point.” He started up the car and put it into gear. “Vamoosing in progress.”
I glanced at him as he drove. “What the hell did those guys want, anyway?”
“They’re Buster Jay’s boys. They’ve been coming around the house recently, looking for my sister.”
I frowned. “That’s messed up, Malcolm. Have you called the police?”
He nodded as he pulled onto the highway. “We did. Sheriff’s been sending a patrol to our street more frequently, but Jay’s punks seem to show up when the police ain’t around.”
I covered a surprised look. “Is your family okay? Christ, this sounds nuts.”
“They’re fine, for now. I don’t think Buster Jay’s so stupid that he’d try anything drastic.”
“Like following you with a truck full of toughs isn’t drastic?”
Malcolm glanced at me. “You know what I mean. I think we scared them just now, though. Hopefully they’ll stay off our backs for a while.”
“Jeez, I don’t know, Malcolm. What if they keep coming back?”
“Then I guess we talk to Buster Jay and figure something out.”
I didn’t like the sound of that but didn’t know what to say. Having a drug dealer coming after me or my friends didn’t sound like anything I wanted to get involved with. I rolled it around in my head for a few minutes, then sighed. “Well, I guess be careful in the meantime, and call the freaking police if you have to.”
“I’ll do that.” He chuckled, “Oh, hey, and by the way… Where to?” He gestured toward the road ahead.
“I’ve got too much energy pent-up. Drop me off at the far end of Mount Vernon, where it hooks up with Glebe. I’ll get in a run on my way home. I’m so wired I bet I could run a three-minute mile.”
He shrugged. “Okay, if you want. I could get you to the bus stop easier, though.”
I shook my head. “I’m not joking. I’m so amped up right now.” I showed him my left hand, which was shaking from the adrenaline. I peeked a glance at my crystal too, though I shouldn’t have bothered. The thing was lit up like a good LED flashlight. “Running will help take the edge off. The last thing Abbie and my roommates need is me coming home and bouncing off the walls.”
He chuckled while he drove. “All right.”
I nodded, then shifted in my seat to focus on him. “We really have a weirdly messed up relationship, don’t we?”
He glanced at me and shrugged. “I dunno. You’re all right. Hell, if it weren’t for you, I’d be dead for one thing. But barring that
, I’d have probably burned my house down by now. And that’d look pretty stupid.”
“True enough.” A sudden thought struck me and I reached into my satchel and pulled out my phone. Shit. Sure enough, the thing’s screen was blackened and cracked. Nothing happened when I hit the power button. I flashed it at Malcolm. “Torched another phone.”
He glanced at me and my phone, and then shifted in his seat to pull his phone out of his back pocket. His was a different model, but shared the same fried appearance. He tossed it onto the mat beneath my feet. “Shit. Maybe that’s something you can ask this Miss Chin of yours.”
I stared at him. “What?”
He chuckled. “How to keep our powers from wrecking our phones every time we use them.”
I stared at him and just had to laugh. Of all the things to worry about just now, protecting our phones was on his mind.
Chapter Ten
THERE WASN’T MUCH MORE TO SAY, so Malcolm and I fell into silence as he drove us to the intersection of Mount Vernon and Glebe. I got out of the car with the promise of catching up with him tomorrow at Branchwood. His grandma was a resident along with my grandpa, though we didn’t think they were close.
I stood on the sidewalk watching Malcolm pull out into traffic, grateful that I had thought to wear running shoes. A momentary flare of worry hit me, and I cast about my surroundings with my eyes and my Sight, but didn’t see anything out of the ordinary or sense anyone creeping about or monitoring my movements. I forced myself to take a few deep breaths and then took a few minutes to stretch before securing my satchel around my chest and neck and then launching into a jog.
Even with every other thing going on in my life, from money issues to Miss Chin to the ghosts to Abbie’s frustrations with me and all the crap with Malcolm, I have my running. I wouldn’t say I’m like a running weirdo, but running is one of the few things I have and do that is mine and mine alone.
Even the Beacon and magic stuff is something I sort of share with Miss Chin, and Malcolm to a lesser extent, and with the souls I guide to the Veil, but running, that’s all me.
