Beacon's Fury (Potomac Shadows Book 3)

by Jim Johnson

  I bit my lower lip in concentration as a fine sheen of sweat broke out on my brow. With the engine off, the air conditioning had gone away. The windows were shut, and I was straining to get a sense of who or what might have been in those SUVs.

  The combination was started to wear on me, and that’s when I felt a wave of reassurance from Charity.

  Take a moment, Rachel. Breathe. Channel some of the stress and worry away and adjust your body temperature, as we worked on together.

  I let out an explosive sigh. “All right, fine. I’ll ease off.” I focused on Malcolm. “Can you pick up anything in those vans, Mister Warden of the more interesting powers?”

  Malcolm snorted. “Not more interesting, just different. We have different roles, right?” He resumed staring at and scanning the two SUVs. “Them two rides; something weird about them. I can get an etheric read on their make and model, but I can’t penetrate inside. It’s like they got mad deflectors up.”

  Charity’s etheric face frowned. Deflectors?

  Malcolm laughed, a short sharp bark. “Star Trek, girl. I’ll have to sit y’all down soon and show you some episodes.”

  I managed a slight grin in spite of the circumstances. “That’d be fun. Sorry, Charity. I’d have shown you some episodes by now, but Abbie and I don’t have a television or cable service.”

  Malcolm shook his head. “Shoot, you don’t need that. Just need a computer and a web connection. Stream that stuff for real.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Now is not the time to talk about Star Trek or free streaming services.” I stabbed Malcolm with a well-placed elbow. “Besides, nimrod, if Charity doesn’t know anything about television, it’s not very likely she knows much about streaming television shows.”

  Malcolm glanced at Charity’s form within the etherics around us. “I guess not. Sorry, Charity. Sometimes I forget…you know.”

  Charity smiled at both of us. Not to worry. There’ll be plenty of time to bring me up to speed. Her expression turned serious. I cannot scan inside the two vehicles either. They are clearly shielded somehow from outside ley interference.

  She paused, then added, An impressive application of the ley threads, I must add. We should be cautious.

  I couldn’t disagree with that. A shift in the ley warned me a second before one of the SUV passenger-side doors opened, and a large man stepped out of one of the vans, closed the door behind him, and started walking toward us.

  Oh, shit. I glanced at Malcolm, who had turned to glance at me. “What do we do?” we said, simultaneously.

  I was in momentary brain-lock, like I had a hundred simultaneous thoughts and they had all just crashed together into one chunky mess. “I…uh…They’ve already seen us, so running away won’t…”

  I didn’t finish the thought. The dark man from the van moved closer, somehow moving faster than I thought someone walking across the pavement might normally walk, and I saw who it was.

  Detective Bello. Resident weird guy with a badge and more mysterious than Coca-Cola’s secret recipe.

  Chapter Eighteen

  DETECTIVE BELLO SHADED HIS EYES AGAINST the light coming down from a street lamp, presumably to get a better look at us through the windshield, but I knew it was an act. I could feel his scanning efforts through the ley, sliding over my shields, attempting to determine our identity.

  Though I guessed he probably remembered Malcolm’s Mustang and license plate.

  Malcolm glanced at me. “Do we talk to him or do we burn rubber out of here?”

  “No, I think we talk to him. What have we got to lose? He already knows we’re here, anyway.”

  Bello, all six-something of him, strode up to the driver’s side door and knocked on the glass. Malcolm’s windows were tinted, but I still saw a slight smile crease Bello’s face.

  Malcolm shot me a glare and then lowered the window. “Evening, detective.”

  Bello squatted down so that his face was mostly level with ours. “I suspected I’d run into the two of you here at some point, but after visitor hours wasn’t the time I thought it’d happen.” He glanced at Malcolm and then focused on me. “Planning a break-out, or maybe another break-in?”

  I groaned inwardly. We still hadn’t connected, so I doubted Bello knew the whole story of what had happened that night Malcolm and I pushed our way into Branchwood to fight the Spinner. I had avoided calling Bello and, to his dubious credit, he had resisted calling me or otherwise getting in my face about it.

  I cleared my throat and tried an innocent girl look that I doubted would fool him. “Hadn’t planned on breaking in. Thought we’d, uh, park, you know?”

  He studied my face, glanced at Malcolm again, and then returned his steady, creepy look my way. His bright brown eyes were as intense as usual. I felt his will through the ley pushing against my shields, either attempting to find a weakness or just reminding me that he was there.

  I sighed and decided to push back. I focused a tendril of my will and pushed a charged thread toward him. It bounced into his own set of etheric shields and dissipated back into the etherics all around us.

  While I knew theoretically that he was Awakened and gifted with the ability to work the ley, this was my first confirmation that he was at least as capable as I was, but almost certainly more experienced.

  His eyebrows shot up the moment my thread bounced off his shields. He reached out and rested his large brown hands on the windowsill of Malcolm’s door. “That was fair, Rachel. I apologize if my probing was inappropriate.” Almost immediately his pushing against my shields eased off and then disappeared completely.

  Malcolm shifted a glance between the two of us. “What, you dinking around with the ley threads too?” He focused on Bello. “What’s the deal with you, man? Can we trust you or not?”

  Bello studied Malcolm’s face. “What do you think?”

  Malcolm locked eyes with him and they had a silent battle of wills or something for a few seconds. I had a ley shield and additional power to throw into it if Malcolm or Bello decided to start something. My scans didn’t pick up any additional activity in the ley around us, so at least they weren’t tossing etheric strikes at each other.

  Finally Malcolm sat back in his chair and sighed. “Whatever, man. I get it. You probably know me better than I do. I bet you know all there is to know about us, so I don’t think we have a choice but to trust you.”

  Bello smiled what I thought was the first real smile I had seen on him, and it terrified me. He said, “Good instinct, Malcolm. Except that you always have a choice. I do know a lot about both you and Rachel, though it’s not information I’d use against you. You’re both very special people, and my job is to find and protect special people such as yourselves.”

  I leaned down to get a better look at him through the car window. “Why are you here, anyway? Surely not because you hoped to run into us?”

  He shook his head and then gestured toward Branchwood’s main building. “Of course not. Please don’t be alarmed, but I know where both of you live. If I really needed to talk to you, I know where to find you.”

  He let that sink in, which I kinda really didn’t appreciate. All I needed to know was that Bello knew where I lived. I shouldn’t have been surprised, but the knowing sort of made all this new life I was in more disturbing.

  “Truthfully, we’re here to keep an eye on Branchwood in case your old friend decides to come back here and cause problems.”

  I frowned. “Friend? You mean the Spinner?”

  He nodded. “He used this building and its residents for his own ends, and very nearly destroyed the place and everyone in it. We’d like to see that he doesn’t do that.”

  “That’s noble of you.”

  He shrugged. “I can’t tell if that’s sarcasm or not, but nobility has nothing to do with it. My job, as is that of my fellow agents, is to protect civilians such as your grandparents from strange and unnatural circumstances and events stemming from someone’s use or misuse of the grid and the threads.
”

  I stared at him, surprised that he had been so open and clear about his job and the reality of the ley grid. “What local police department has such a group of detectives working for them? I sure haven’t heard of anything like that.”

  He grinned. “That’s good. That means we’re doing our job right.” He shifted his position, and it dawned on me that he had to be uncomfortable squatting down next to the car.

  And then I figured, well, good. Let Bello be a little uncomfortable. Only fair how he made me feel so many times. And now.

  “But to answer your question, no local police department, or even the state police, have any involvement in the ley threads or the grid. That’s a much larger issue and requires a larger agency to address that issue.”

  I stared at him, the pieces falling into place. “You work for the government.”

  Bello’s grin widened. “I do.”

  “Shit.” Malcolm said. “I knew you weren’t no detective. ‘Agent’ isn’t much better, though.”

  “Special agent, actually. I’ve been with the agency long enough to have earned a promotion or two.”

  Malcolm made a little unimpressed wiggle of fingers. “Whatever, man. So which agency actually, you know, works magic with the ley threads? Doesn’t seem like something the F.B.I. or C.I.A. would mess with, but what would I know?”

  Bello nodded. “Exactly. You have no idea, Malcolm, but please don’t take that as a slight. Unless you spent an ungodly amount of time studying the United States’ annual budgets, or knew the right people to talk to on Capitol Hill, you’d probably have no idea we even existed. The fact that the two of you are Awakened individuals operating in the D.C. metro area pretty much guaranteed that we would have run into you eventually.”

  That raised all sorts of questions in my head, and I had a hard time picking which one to start with. I decided to just go with one and hope for the best. “So are we in trouble, or something?”

  Bello shook his head emphatically. “Trouble? Christ, no, Rachel. One of the reasons I’ve sort of lurked around you and Malcolm and your grandparents is because I’ve been asked to watch you, and evaluate you, and if I see what I like, I’m supposed to attempt to recruit you.”

  I blinked a few times, struck silent in surprise. Malcolm rallied faster than I did, and stifled a laugh.

  “You think you might offer us a job? That’s crazy talk, right there.”

  Bello shifted his position again and focused on Malcolm. “It’s not crazy at all. You and Rachel have exhibited some impressive talents and capabilities, and there are people in my organization who’d appreciate the chance to ask you some questions and figure out how or why you two were Awakened almost simultaneously and what you’re capable of.”

  I took a moment or two to mull that one over. “And what do you think you’ve found?” I tried to keep the tone casual, because I had no idea if Bello knew what Malcolm and I had just recently been involved with.

  He sighed. “Well, I know you’re both plugged into the etheric grid, and I know you’re both capable of some pretty impressive stuff, but the specifics have so far eluded me.”

  Malcolm snorted. “You mean you don’t have us scoped out like you do our grandparents?” He gestured toward the two SUVs parked across the parking lot.

  “No, we generally don’t place heavy surveillance on people of interest. Especially when they’re Awakened. They tend to notice they’re being watched, and that’s not an effective way to monitor someone.”

  Charity roused through the etherics. “Rachel, I’m sensing something at home, something…dark.”

  I frowned and then raised a hand toward Bello to get him to be quiet for a moment. I focused inwardly on Charity’s etheric form. “Can you be more specific?” Instinctively, I reached out for more ley power and channeled it into a sensor thread and pushed that out far beyond me, toward home.

  Charity said, “I’d have to return my consciousness to my journal to get a better read, but it feels like the Spinner. Perhaps another ‘geist?”

  Crap. I pulled Malcolm into the loop with Charity even as I threw a quick smile toward Bello, who had paused in his talking to stare at me openly.

  I said to Bello, “Hang on a second, detective, er, agent. Whatever. Hold on.”

  I focused on Malcolm and Charity through the etherics. “Malcolm, we really need to keep this link up and running all the time. It’ll make it easier for the three of us to communicate.”

  His etheric form shrugged. “Makes sense to me, thought I still have a hard time with hearing your voices in my head.”

  “I know the feeling,” I said. “When Miss Chin and I first trained, and when I started working with Charity, it bugged me too. You get used to it.”

  I refocused on Charity and did a quick review of what I was picking up from my sensor thread, which was pretty much nothing. “Charity, anything? I either don’t have the range or I’m being blocked.”

  Her etheric form nodded. I do have the range, which is why my consciousness is able to be with you even as my journal is at home. I believe our efforts to scan are being blocked in or near the house.

  My eyes shot open and I stared right at Malcolm. To hell with Bello, this couldn’t wait. Malcolm met my eyes and some silent agreement passed between us.

  I glanced at Bello as Malcolm cranked up the engine. “Hey, Bello, we gotta roll. It was, uh, nice chatting with you!”

  Bello held onto the doorframe even as Malcolm shifted into gear. Bello said, “What’s going on? I could tell you were talking through the ley, but I couldn’t make out the words.”

  I shook my head. “No time to explain. We’ll catch up later. Maybe I’ll call you.”

  Yeah, right, and maybe I’d wake up tomorrow with these powers just being a nightmare.

  “And thank you for watching over our grandparents!”

  Malcolm nodded toward Bello, who reluctantly removed his hands from Malcolm’s door. Malcolm shot the car out of the parking space, did a neat little turn, and then drove off the property and onto the roads toward home.

  I glanced in the rearview as we left the Branchwood parking lot. Bello was standing where we had left him, stroking his clean-shaven chin, watching as we drove away.

  Once on the streets, I glanced at Malcolm. “Better step on it. We need to get to my place as soon as possible.”

  “What do you think is going on?”

  I focused inwardly to try and reach Charity, but she had dropped out of the link at some point in the shuffle. I cast out with my senses and ley threads to link up with her again, but couldn’t find her.

  That alarmed me even more. I glanced at Malcolm. “Gods, Malcolm. Better step on it. I think we’re in trouble.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  TO HIS CREDIT, MALCOLM MUST HAVE been practicing using the ley threads to help with his driving, because we somehow hit every green light and avoided any slow-downs in traffic on the way to my place. He brought his Mustang to a screeching halt along the curb in front of my house and then shut it down.

  I’d spent the trip shoring up my ley batteries and casting out for anything I could pick up from the house, but all I got back was static, much like what had messed up my senses around Branchwood. This felt darker, more ominous.

  We both stared at the house from inside the car. The place looked quiet enough, though all the lights were off and no one was using the front porch swing.

  “I don’t see any movement in the windows.”

  I shook my head. “Me either. And I can’t get a read on anything through the etherics. No people, no Charity, nothing. It’s like there’s a curtain over the whole place that I can’t see through.”

  Malcolm gathered up ley energies as well, and I imagined I could feel the heat through the threads as he gathered up energies for his hand fire.

  I glanced at him. “Do you think you’ll need that?”

  He stared into my eyes and shrugged. “Better safe than sorry.”

  I couldn’t argue w
ith that. After taking a deep breath and letting it out slow, I popped open my door and got out of the car.

  Malcolm got out as well and we moved down the sidewalk toward the house’s front porch, the silent house and darkened windows almost daring us to step forward.

  I reinforced my senses and pushed hard against the strange etheric miasma that covered the house and prevented me from Seeing through it, but whoever had constructed it had more talent with the ley than I could deal with right now.

  “Maybe if we work together, we could break through?”

  We reached the front porch and creaked our way up the short flight of wood stairs. Malcolm said, “Couldn’t hurt, but let’s save our energy until we know we need it. Enough strange stuff has happened today. Let’s see if things are okay first.”

  I pondered that but then nodded. “All right. But be ready to bring that fire.”

  He grinned a malicious grin and held up his fists. Thin wisps of smoke flitted into the air around us from his hands, and through the etherics I saw the bronze-blue glow surrounding his hands. He was about as ready as he could be.

  I flared my powers and called forth a ley shield, set it around us, and then pushed open the front door.

  The hallway beyond the door was dark and quiet, so we stepped into the house gingerly, the old wooden flooring creaking in all the usual places. The two rooms on either side of the entrance were both empty, which set off even more alarm bells in my mind.

  “Someone should be down here. It’s not all that late. We never go to bed at the same time.”

  Malcolm nodded, but kept his smoking fists up and at the ready. “Anyone downstairs?”

  I nodded. “Our roommate Tonia lives down there. Jackie is on this level, and the rest of us are upstairs.”

  “That’s a lot of people for one house.”

  I shrugged. “Helps keep the rent costs manageable.”