Power in Darkness

by Krista Street

  Connor grinned. “I’m ready.”

  Closing my eyes, I focused on my healing light. When I cracked the lid on the storage chest below my navel, my light sprang forth, winding up my belly and into my arms. Bursts of pain followed, but I ignored that. I was used to my healing sessions hurting me.

  The dark power shifted, too, but I tried to focus on the feel of my hands as they warmed.

  Standing lightly on the balls of my feet, I shifted and swayed, letting my light tell me exactly where Connor’s injury lay. Sickness spiraled around Connor’s spinal column, alerting me to his old injury.

  I scrunched my eyes tightly closed, concentrating harder than I normally did since the dark power was still swirling in my belly, but I wasn’t touching Connor, which made it possible to keep the dark power from hurting him, but still, it was hard.

  After taking a deep breath, I dipped my healing light into Connor’s body, feeling for the source of his injury. There. A satisfied smile spread across my face when I located where the spinal cord was severed. I slid my light away from the decay around his cord and assessed the rest of his body.

  My hands moved back and forth, telling me of every ailment that plagued him. He had a few narrowed arteries from atherosclerosis, and thinning muscles in his abdominal wall, leaving him vulnerable to a hernia, but other than that, barely any sickness filled his body.

  I shifted my light back to the lumbar area, intending to correct his clogged arteries and thin abdominal muscles at the end of our session.

  I worked my light into his spinal column. The exertion caused sweat to bead on my forehead. As my healing light transferred his sickness to me, my legs weakened.

  Healing paralyzed clients could prove tricky since during the process I eventually transferred their injury entirely to myself, but Cecile was ready. She’d already moved a chair behind me, the brush of the chair’s wooden legs making the barest whisper as she positioned it, ready for my fall.

  Concentrating more to avoid any further injury to his spine, I called more upon my light.

  The dark power rushed upward.

  My eyes flashed open. Connor was lying completely still, his eyes closed while his arms rested at his sides. I took a few shallow breaths, panic filling me.

  Cecile watched me from the edge of the room, wrinkles appearing between her eyes as she frowned.

  I smiled shakily and licked my dry lips as I tried to reassure myself that it had been a fluke. I wasn’t touching Connor. The dark power had only responded before when I’d been touching someone.

  But you’ve only been living with this power for a day. Who’s to say it’s actually limited to only touching people? Your light heals without touching people.

  But I pushed that worrying thought aside and hovered my hands above Connor. Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes again until warmth filled my palms as my healing resumed.

  I focused on the calming scents of the candles, using their subtle fragrances to ground my concentration. Breathe in, breathe out, Dar. You got this.

  Shifting my hands over his spinal area again, I called forth more light to wrap around his spine, threading together the damaged nerves and strengthening his weak muscles.

  My light billowed up inside me like a golden painful glowing ribbon. It trailed down my arms to my hands, making heat shoot from my palms. My worry eased as the healing session resumed.

  A second ticked by, then another. My relief grew. Things felt normal, painful but purposeful, like they usually did. Everything’s fine.

  I dug into my healing light again, calling more forth, while I readied myself to transfer his paralysis entirely to my body. Just a little more light.

  The dark power rushed up again, shooting down my arms like a torpedo.

  I shrieked.

  The burst of power came from nowhere, and the rush of it was so forceful that I jumped back just as red light shot from my fingertips.

  Connor’s eyes flashed open as the red power singed the bed beside him, burning the bed and leaving a huge black crater. He pulled away from where the power had landed with a horrified look.

  “What was that?” Terror filled his eyes as he looked frantically around the room. He reached over his chest and brushed his arm. Singed hairs sizzled on his skin. “I’m burned!”

  I panted, my thighs pressing against the chair that had been ready for my fall. I tried to back up more but stumbled when my foot caught on the chair’s leg.

  “What’s going on?” Connor asked. “I still can’t feel my legs.”

  I gripped my hands tightly together, panic welling up in my chest at what I’d almost done. Cecile kept her distance, for the first time in my life, looking too frightened to approach me.

  “I’m sorry,” I said, my voice shaking. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean for that to happen!” I looked down at my trembling hands. They no longer felt safe and familiar. If that power had hit his chest, it would have stopped his heart.

  I’m a killer. I’m still a killer!

  Horror at what I’d become swirled inside me as I shoved my healing power into the well below my navel. I tried to do the same with the dark power, but when I tried to push it, it trembled and felt eager, as if beckoning me to use it. I flinched away from it, no longer trying to control it. Touching it internally and acknowledging it, only seemed to make it grow stronger.

  “I’m so sorry!” I whispered again before I ran from the room.

  ∞ ∞ ∞

  I walked at a frantic pace on the highway’s shoulder, the gravel from the county road cutting into my thin-soled canvas shoes. Cool wind whipped against my bare legs. Since the hour was early, the day’s heat hadn’t set in.

  With each step, my calf burned, reminding me of my still-healing werewolf bite.

  At least ten minutes had gone by since I’d fled the healing session, and as the road passed beneath me, I felt more and more panicked.

  I can’t heal people anymore. I can’t touch them or use my light on them!

  My new reality was nothing like what my life used to be. At least then, I’d been able to live among others without fear of hurting them—even if their touch hurt me.

  I was so caught up in my thoughts that I barely heard the footsteps tapping quietly behind me.

  Halting abruptly, I twirled around.

  Logan stopped several yards away, his hands stuffed into his pockets, a stricken expression on his face. He’d probably been following me the entire time, but I’d been so consumed with grief that I hadn’t known it.

  The sun played off his dark hair, making some of the strands appear blackish-bronze. He still wore jeans and a T-shirt, but for the first time since I’d met him, I didn’t feel a hint of desire.

  Only shame.

  Shame at what I’d become and regret at what we could never be.

  “Did Cecile tell you?” I called hoarsely. Wind washed over my cheeks as tears threatened to stream down my face. “Did you hear what I did? Do you know that I almost killed that man back there?”

  His stricken expression remained. He nodded solemnly, his Adam’s apple bobbing when he swallowed. “I heard, but it’s not your fault, Dar. You would never hurt someone intentionally. It was an accident.”

  “An accident that almost killed someone!” I turned away from him and wrapped my arms around myself.

  Montana’s wild beauty stretched all around me. Cattle lowed in the distance. A small creek cut through the surrounding fields, and mountains rose from the earth like grassy pyramids that touched the sky.

  “I can’t work anymore,” I whispered. “My entire purpose for being on this earth was destroyed in a single event last night. If I can’t trust myself and my power, I can’t heal people. The entire purpose of my family will die with me. I’ll be the reason the Gresham legacy becomes broken.”

  The weight of the responsibility I’d felt my whole life, the need to perform, to sacrifice certain aspects of my life to fulfill my destiny, all came crashing down on me.

  I
sank to the ground, the sharp gravel cutting into my butt. When I lifted my hands to my face, small palms and narrow fingers stared back at me. I flipped them over. A few freckles smattered the backs of my hands, and neatly trimmed nails adorned my fingertips, yet inside my hands lay something else—a new power, a new darkness.

  And it wasn’t something I could control.

  “What do I do?” I asked more to myself than him.

  Logan approached slowly and sat down a few feet away. Seeing him put extra distance between us only made the pain in my heart grow.

  As if sensing my distress, he inched closer, his jeans scraping along the gravel. “Dar, we’ll find a way to stop whatever’s happening to you. We’ll find answers to explain it, then we’ll stop it.”

  I lifted my eyes to his. Surprisingly, the tears stayed at bay. Instead, a deep numbness sank in. “Nobody can help me.”

  “You don’t know that.” Logan swallowed, the sound audible above the bubbling creek in the field. “Somebody in the community may be able to help. Maybe the scholars can dig something up.”

  I cocked my head, the numbness stretching across my chest. I wanted to believe him. I wanted to jump up and run headfirst toward Boise and hope that it could all go away.

  But I had a feeling it wouldn’t be that easy.

  Chapter 10

  Cecile canceled the rest of my shows. With each call she made, the numbness in me grew. Despite lying on my bunk in the back of the bus, I still heard my clients’ protests, their anger, their absolute despair that I couldn’t save them. They had counted on me.

  For most of my clients, I was their last hope. They’d tried everything modern medicine had to offer and hadn’t found help. Only my healing light could save them.

  “Yes, yes, I know that Mikey’s been on the waiting list for eight months,” Cecile said to the twentieth client she called. “I know. I know that your child is dying from cancer and that the chemo isn’t working…”

  I squeezed my eyes tightly shut.

  We were still parked outside the motel. Connor had left in his handicap van after I’d fled the room. He would most likely spend the rest of his days in that wheelchair unless a miracle in modern medicine happened and his spinal column could be repaired.

  “Yes, of course,” Cecile’s voice carried to me again. “We’ll be sure to let you know as soon as Daria starts working again.”

  As soon as… If only that were true.

  “Babe?” Logan’s quiet voice reached my ears.

  I rolled over to face the aisle. His worry-filled gaze assessed me. My bunk being on the top meant we were almost at eye-level.

  “We’re going to have some lunch before we head to Boise. Do you want to join us?”

  A part of me wanted to shake my head and tell him that I wasn’t hungry, that eating felt impossible, but then I remembered what my mom and my nan had told me.

  “We’re Greshams. Our family has faced hardships for centuries. There will be times in your life when you’ll want to give up, where you’ll want to crawl into a ball and disappear, but remember why you’re here. You carry blood that was meant to heal. Your purpose is to save. Don’t let those hardships win. Remember who you are.”

  I closed my eyes, remembering their words and their love.

  For a fraction of a second, the numbness abated.

  Remember who you are.

  I held on to that growing sense of purpose, the one that had been drummed into me for as long as I could remember.

  I won’t forget, Mom, and I won’t let you down. I’ll find a way to beat this dark power, and I’ll reclaim the purpose that our family has lived for. I promise.

  Keeping that thought firmly in place, I pushed up on my elbows and slid out of my bunk. My lips thinned as I straightened my shirt. “Yeah, let’s eat then get moving. How far away is Boise?”

  A small smile curved Logan’s lips. He lifted his hand, his finger reaching for the stray lock of hair across my cheek, but he dropped it at the last second. Still, his smile remained.

  “There’s that fighting spirit I admire so much. And we’re about six hours from Boise. We should be there by evening.”

  ∞ ∞ ∞

  We arrived in Boise just after supper. Flat, dry land surrounded the interstate, and in the distance, mountains lined the horizon in gentle mounds. We got off I-84 and drove toward the city center, my nose pressed to the window the entire way, as if I were hoping I would see a sign of magical existence on every street corner we passed.

  “Where are the headquarters located?” I glanced over my shoulder to make eye contact with Logan.

  He lounged on the couch across from me, his legs stretching across the aisle as he propped his bare feet on my sofa.

  I perched on the edge of the cushion and admired his strong frame. A tingle of desire ran through me at the sight of his strong body sprawled out.

  That desire brought a sense of relief too. Already, I felt my old self returning. The hours that morning and early afternoon, when despair had wanted to claim me, were disappearing like a bad dream upon waking.

  His nostrils flared, a knowing look in his eyes.

  Damn, he’s sexy. I then rolled my eyes internally. There I went, perving again.

  “Headquarters are on the north side of the city, near the foothills. Our location is hidden in plain sight from the humans.”

  I dropped back onto the couch, eliciting a twinge of pain in my calf. “Hidden in plain sight?”

  “A cloaking spell keeps us completely hidden, similar to what Holly did back at the park but on a much vaster scale. When we enter the headquarters, we have to access a special portal. Only supernatural blood and an SF security pass allow admittance.”

  I cocked my head. “So what do humans see when you enter the portal?”

  “Nothing. They’d see us walking along as if we never stopped.”

  “Seriously?”

  A smile stretched across his face. “Seriously. On top of the witches’ cloaking spell, the entire headquarters is warded and guarded with sorcerer magic. Once we drive on to the warded road, if a human is watching, they’ll see the bus continuing on. However, we’ll actually stop to get out so that we can enter headquarters. When we do that, an illusion is created, making it seem as if we simply kept driving.”

  I crossed my legs beneath me, my interest in the passing scenery forgotten. “But what if a human follows us in their own car? Wouldn’t they notice the bus stopping?”

  “No, they wouldn’t. The illusion would make it look like the bus continued driving and never stopped. That’s why we use sorcerer magic since they can manipulate memory and thought patterns. Even if a human were following the magical illusion of the bus, eventually their attention would wane. They would forget that a bus had ever been in front of them, so when the illusion ends the human would carry on driving, none the wiser to having their thought patterns altered by a sorcerer.”

  “That’s amazing. So is it like a magical fog around the SF headquarters or something?”

  “No, it’s a barrier. You’ll see exactly what I mean when we get there. Once you cross the barrier’s threshold, if you’re human, you’re sensitive to the spells the sorcerers and witches have weaved. And once you get to the end of the barrier and leave it, your memory’s altered—again, only if you’re human.”

  I shook my head, stunned at how much I still didn’t know. “Incredible.”

  “What’s incredible?” Cecile asked, walking toward us from the back of the bus.

  “Just stuff about the community that Logan’s been telling me.” I scooted over on the couch so she could sit beside me.

  Cecile sat only a few inches away. She didn’t seem as wary as she’d been in the motel room with Connor the day before. “It sounds like this city is full of magic.”

  Logan scratched his chin. “It is, yet none of the humans living here even know it.”

  I eyed Cecile then Mike, who was following the directions Logan had given him. We were less
than twenty minutes away from headquarters.

  “So what happens to Cecile and Mike when we get there?” I frowned, suddenly realizing that my only family left in the world was subject to the very magic Logan had described.

  “Nothing, initially. They’ll be able to see when we get out, and they’ll see when we walk toward headquarters, but after we step through the portal, the illusion is created. Even though we disappear, they’ll see us still walking, and after they drive away, they won’t remember having seen us at all.”

  Cecile’s eyebrows rose. “We won’t?”

  Logan shook his head. “You’ll remember dropping Daria and me off somewhere, but you won’t be able to find the exact spot again even if your life depended on it.”

  She frowned. “Then how in the world will we find you again?”

  Logan grinned. “You won’t. We’ll find you.”

  ∞ ∞ ∞

  The sun dipped closer to the horizon when we reached the northern foothills. The fading light bathed the fields and rolling hills in a reddish gold, but as we drove deeper into the foothills, the vegetation grew. Dry brown grass swayed in the wind, and various pine species, hemlock, and western red cedars dominated the landscape, rising alongside the narrow two-lane road, making it seem as if we were traveling through a tunnel.

  “Looks like a nice place to go for a hike,” I commented.

  Logan winked. “Or a run.”

  Smiling, I rolled my eyes. “I’m guessing you mean a four-legged run, not a two-legged one?”

  “Good guess.” He chuckled. “It’s not too much farther, about a hundred yards. Do you see the barrier?”

  I rose and walked closer to the front of the bus to peer out the windshield. At first, I didn’t see anything, but when I squinted and leaned down, the barrier appeared.

  My jaw dropped. A fine, glowing red ribbon stretched across the road before it disappeared in the trees alongside the highway. It waved and shimmered, as if manipulated by the wind, but I doubted nature’s elements affected it.

  Logan’s heavy footsteps came from behind me, then came Cecile’s.