I’d gotten him instead. I made a small gravitational anomaly right under his feet, exponentially increasing the force of gravity until it had left him a bloody smear on the ground. The man’s name was Sean Duff. I didn’t feel guilty about killing him, not after he had tried so hard to kill me (and Rick—I was more upset over the threat to Rick than anything that could’ve happened to me. Even now, I still feel a searing stab of rage when I think about someone hurting him), but the thought of it did make me a little queasy. The sight of a man reduced to splinters of bone, shapeless flesh, and a splash of blood isn’t something that leaves you with a hankering for pizza. It leaves you with a sense of distaste, of unease, similar to the feeling in your gut when the elevator you’re riding makes a sudden and unexpected stop.
It wouldn’t slow me down, though. Next time I would be ready. And so would Rick. We had been practicing every evening, preparing ourselves for the inevitable fights in our future. Small skirmishes in my backyard against mannequins were the best we could do, though we tried to simulate situations in which we might find ourselves.
These included one that Rick insisted would teach us to fight without relying on the protection of clothing. When I protested that it was extremely unlikely that I would have to face down four enemy agents naked, he just shook his head sadly, and muttered that it was my funeral.
It isn’t all about work, okay?
Behind me, I heard Gabriel’s office door open after I passed it.
“Nora?” I heard my mentor call out.
I turned around, a warm smile on my face. “Yes, sir?”
The old man offered me a smile of his own, a grin that took years off his face. I’ve always thought that he looked like everyone’s favorite grandpa, and that hadn’t changed, despite everything going on. I only wished that I could fully trust him, like I used to.
“Please, dear, come in. We haven’t spoken in so long.”
“Sir, I really have—”
“I made tea, Nora. Come sit down and visit with an old man.”
I sighed and acquiesced, following his retreating back into his office. No matter how old I got, Gabriel would always be able to boss me around however he pleased. Thankfully, it didn’t bother me too much.
I wanted to tell him everything I knew. I wanted to have Gabriel take charge, to form a plan, to drag the conspirators into the light of day and put an end to it all. He could do it, too—all it would take would be some of his mental magic, and he could figure out exactly what the enemy’s plans were, could neutralize them if he had to. Spirit was a subtle form of magic, not flashy or overtly destructive—but imagine what someone with the ability to manipulate thoughts could do. An exertion of will would be all it would take to reduce someone to a screaming ball of agony on the floor, or send someone fleeing from hallucinatory monsters. Gabriel could be not only an important ally, but a game changer.
The only problem, of course, was that Gabriel may be one of the conspirators. I hated the thought, loathed the very idea that the man who was so good to me might be planning to help murder millions of people, but it was possible.
On almost every front, the problems of the world were growing in number and magnitude. Drought, famine, plague, armed conflict, natural disasters, economic malaise—these were getting worse, not better, and it was all Focus could do to curb the worst of it. We were losing, and had been for decades.
I couldn’t imagine what that knowledge could do to someone who had dedicated so many years of his life to serving an unwinnable cause. He may have decided to take more drastic action.
Of course, it was also possible that Gabriel was an unknowing conspirator, too. Jason hadn’t been able to investigate much into Spirit before he had left, and Rick and I weren’t able to uncover anything before today. If there was even a single Spirit agent involved, then it was entirely possible that everyone was compromised. The mental magic they could employ was terrifyingly effective at creating turncoats through methods similar to posthypnotic suggestion. Gabriel could be working against me and not even know it.
So I couldn’t take the risk and tell him. Damn it.
“How is Water doing, Nora? Have you learned anything new?” The old man poured tea into a pair of mismatched mugs. He passed the one with a cartoon dog on it to me, and kept the one that depicted Garfield eating (what else?) lasagna.
“I learned that Water is probably in more need of fresh agents than any of the other factions.”
Gabriel nodded. “They are severely understaffed. Many of our young people are gravitating towards Air these days. Something about helping heal people must appeal to them.”
“Not going to be as many people to heal if Water doesn’t get the help it needs.”
He cocked his head sideways. “I’m given to understand that the climate changes won’t be considered catastrophic for a century or two at least. I believe we have some time, yet.”
“Maybe,” I allowed. “But we may as well fix the problems as soon as we can, before they get to the point where we can’t fix them anymore.”
“True. It’s always admirable to get ahead of a situation—when you can, at least.” He took a sip of tea before tilting his head thoughtfully. “A young man just joined Water, actually. Nicholas. I think you know each other.”
My heart began beating very quickly. This may be a chance to gain more information.
“Ms. Praeger told me that he hasn’t been in since he went through the Bonding.”
Gabriel sat up straighter in his seat. “What?”
“She said that he hasn’t turned up for duty since his ceremony. She isn’t worried yet, but he isn’t answering his phone or responding to messages.”
He stroked his hairless chin slowly. “This… Hmm.” He paused for a moment before continuing, his voice carefully even and uninflected. “I believe, Nora, that you are aware of some odd occurrences over the past month?”
I kept my voice calm, despite my racing pulse. “I’m not sure what you mean.”
“Disappearances. Seven of them, to be exact.”
“Who’s disappeared?” I asked, knowing the answer.
“Six of them were Air agents. They weren’t in the field; all of them were on home duty. Gone, vanished without a trace. But that isn’t nearly as disturbing to me as Mr. Butler. The Head of the Fire Faction disappeared several weeks ago.”
“I’m sure that you have your suspicions, sir,” I prompted.
“Dozens. Unfortunately, our chief internal investigator was Mr. Butler, and he’s the one we’re trying to find. I hesitate to call him irreplaceable, but he is about as close to it as this organization can afford to get. The other Factions are scrambling to get their footing, and Air is calling for a full investigation into their missing agents.”
“Do you think the same thing may have happened to Nicholas?”
“I’m not sure, but it is certainly troubling. I’m going to have to bring this up at the meeting.”
“Meeting?”
“Yes. I’ve recalled my agents from their posts around the world. All of Spirit is going to meet to discuss the disappearances. We need to come up with an investigation strategy. Unfortunately, we haven’t had to do this without Mr. Butler for a few decades, and his mind for this sort of thing is really unmatched. My Faction will just have to make do on its own.”
“Can’t you just question everyone, and compel them to tell the truth with your abilities?”
“Certainly,” Gabriel said, “if this were Nazi Germany, or Stalin’s Russia. No, I won’t allow that. We aren’t that desperate, not yet. I won’t have us taking the free will of our own people.”
“Fair point.”
“I’m glad you agree.”
“So what will you do?”
He heaved a sigh. “What we always do, Nora. Find the truth, bring it to light.”
“What if we’re under attack? It seems like a good strategy, taking out the head of the combat branch before launching a more sweeping strike.”
&
nbsp; “From whom, though? Who would want to stop what we’re doing?”
“’Suffer not a witch to live,’” I intoned.
Gabriel scoffed. “The Church has known about us from the beginning. They know we aren’t witches. We’re wizards. It’s different. Besides, one of the Popes was a member.”
My jaw dropped. “Wait, what? Really?”
“Before you ask, I won’t tell you which one; we had to cut a deal, and silence was one of them. But it was last century. Anyway, no, I don’t think we’re under attack. At least, it doesn’t look that way.”
“Hmm. What could it be, then?”
“What indeed?”
“Guess you’ll find out.”
“I hope so, Nora.”
“Let me know how the meeting goes. When is it?”
“Tomorrow evening. We had to take out the auditorium on the school’s campus to house us all. There are too many for the headquarters.”
I nodded. “I’d better get going, sir, if you don’t mind.”
“Of course. Got to get to that new man of yours, I expect,” he added, grinning.
My blood froze. How did he know?
“How did—“
“Nora, I’ve always been able to read you like a book. Oh no, no, not literally!” he insisted as he saw my eyebrows shoot up. “I’m not reading your mind, dear, I promise! I only mean that you’ve been acting a little different lately, and, at your age, a new man in your life would explain…” he trailed off.
I blushed. For a moment, I had thought that Gabriel had read my mind, or was subtly threatening Rick. I was getting extremely paranoid.
“Yes, well. You happen to be right.”
“Can I meet him?” he asked.
“Maybe. But you’ve got this meeting to take care of first. We’ll figure something out soon.”
“All right. Good night, Nora.”
“Night, sir.”
I rose from my seat, and left the office, my head buzzing with information. First, someone had covered up the deaths of the Air agents, as well as Jason. Second, nobody knew how to go about investigating the situation, or the bad guys were otherwise putting roadblocks in everyone else’s way. Third, all of Spirit was coming to town for the first time… well, ever.
I didn’t know what it all meant, but I was determined to find out.
Chapter Three
“It sounds to me like you had a full day,” Rick said around a mouthful of cheeseburger.
We sat across from one another at my kitchen table, later that same evening. Rick had greeted me at the front door with a grin and a promise of a dinner that was actually cooked, rather than frozen and heated to lukewarm imperfection. Warming a can of soup on the stovetop is pretty much the limit to my cooking ability, but Rick assured me that he was a “grill-master” and a “sergeant of the skillet,” and promised to take care of it. I filled him in on the events of the day while he made a massive plate of burgers and fries.
Rick had shoveled down four of the burgers by the time I finished, and was working on his fifth. He was a big man, dwarfing me in size, and insisted that he needed a steady diet consisting mainly of protein in order to stay fit. I couldn’t argue with his muscles—pretty, sculpted bodybuilder muscles, not the heavy slabs from hard labor—but I actually thought that it was his supernatural side that demanded such dietary restrictions.
Rick was a shapeshifter, a skinchanger, capable of assuming literally any form that made biological sense, regardless of size, from a gnat to a blue whale. There were even stories of skinchangers turning into things that more closely resembled nightmares than anything found in nature. I was pretty sure that Rick could become Godzilla if he so desired, as long as he understood where to put the internal organs, and sized them appropriately. Considering that that would require advanced knowledge of anatomy that most skinchangers don’t have, his people normally didn’t use their abilities that way.
Though I wondered if all the Bigfoot sightings throughout history weren’t skinchanger pranks.
I had brought up the fact that his ability violated the laws of physics, namely conservation of mass and energy. Every time I mentioned it, Rick flapped one hand and simply said, “Magic, Nora. You’re applying science to magic.”
Still, a part of me wanted to stick him in a lab somewhere and find out exactly how his ability worked. I guess that’s why skinchangers keep their presence a secret.
“Yeah, sounds like we’re going to have a busy few days,” I replied. I gnawed on a burger of my own. It was actually pretty good. Rick knew how to season his meat pretty well. “So, I’m thinking we need to find Nicholas, right?”
Rick held up one finger, swallowing his food before speaking. “That should be our first priority, I think. What do you think happened?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know. Either he saw something he didn’t like and bailed out, or he’s dead. It doesn’t make any sense for him to have just disappeared.”
“How do you know?”
“Because he’s been preparing for this day for years, Rick. Most of the initiates are brought in through the private school. They’re found young, usually when they aren’t even teenagers yet. They’re brought up around magic, around the goal of making the world a better place, and they’re trained and counseled on how to use their abilities to do so. Nick had just gone through his Bonding, had officially joined Water. He should have been chomping at the bit to come in to work. It’s the culmination of years of work, training, and dedication. It would be like missing your wedding day.”
Rick cocked his head to one side thoughtfully at that last comment, and I blushed.
The two of us didn’t have anything resembling a normal relationship. We had met less than a month ago, because I assumed he had been spying on me. It turned out that I was right, and he had been, but for good reasons, not creepy ones. It had been Rick who told me about the treachery within Focus, and that the conspirators were planning a disaster that would result in thousands or millions of deaths. Together, we had been doing our best to find out what was coming, and how to stop it. Jason was off doing some kind of spook work, and we hadn’t heard from him in a while. It left the two of us with little to do except wait, watch, and listen.
Rick and I had been attracted to one another from the start. I mean, he was gorgeous. Then I found out that he was also funny, smart, and genuinely kind. I liked him a hell of a lot, and he seemed to feel the same way. Ordinarily, that would involve dates, like going out to dinner, maybe catching a movie or a show. Instead, the situation demanded that Rick live with me in my house, and our only dates had been training in the backyard, surveillance operations, and occasionally catching a movie on HBO.
Also a disproportionally large amount of sex, but I’m not complaining about that.
I would have preferred to let things develop more naturally rather than have the two of us thrown together this way. But I wasn’t about to slow down just for the sake of normalcy. Hell, I was lucky that Rick and I got along so well. I would’ve hated it if he had turned out to be an asshole.
“Moving on,” I said, wishing my cheeks weren’t so red. “The point is that Nick should have reported for duty for two days in a row, and missed both. Something’s not right.”
“I’m on board,” Rick said, smiling. “Where do we start?”
“His house. Either he’s still there and we find him, or he bailed and we look for any clues he left behind.” I thought for a few moments before shaking my head. “Though…”
“What?”
“Well, what if he… what if he signed up with the bad guys?”
“We have got to come up with something to call them, you know. ‘Bad Guys’ and ‘Traitors’ sounds pretty lame after a few weeks.”
I reached over and flicked his ear. “Concentrate, Rick. What do we do if it turns out that he’s joined the… Unfocused?”
“Ooh. ‘Unfocused.’ I think I like that. It’s thematically appropriate.”
“Can it. What
if he’s a threat?”
Rick twisted his lips to one side as he thought. It was one of his quirks that I had noticed after a little while with him. Heaven help me, I thought it was cute.
“We’ve handled ourselves before, haven’t we?” He asked. “I mean… you and I took down two full Air agents without Jason’s backup.”
“That was different,” I insisted, shivering involuntarily at the memory of Duff’s vital organs splattered against the grass like red paint. “We caught them by surprise. They were expecting to hit an over the hill Fire agent, not a skinchanger and an initiate. Wizards are capable of truly terrifying things after they’ve gone through the Bonding. You saw how quickly Jason took down those four guys up front.”
Rick nodded. “Yeah, they fucked up big time only sending six people after a guy like Jason. What were they planning to do, anyway? All they managed to do was break a few windows before we took them down.”
“Jason says that they were trying to create a localized tornado. They were probably hoping that he was asleep, and that by the time he woke up, he’d be doing a pretty good—if wrongly gendered— impression of Dorothy.”
“That’s still a stupid plan. That one agent literally ripped the air out of our lungs. We would have died in a few more seconds if you hadn’t done something. Hell, with six of them, they could have just stood outside and turned the whole house into a vacuum. Jason wouldn’t have been able to get out of bed before he was at least unconscious.” He paused for another few seconds. “Or, shit, why didn’t they just shoot us? It’s way easier than using magic.”
“We’re a pretty one-dimensional people, Rick.”
“It’s dumb,” he insisted. “Don’t get me wrong, you guys are capable of incredible things. I just don’t see the point in doing all of this flashy stuff when a bullet would do just fine. It’s not like you guys are bulletproof or anything, right?”
“Well…”
Rick stared at me. “Babe, are you bulletproof? Because that would seriously mess with my ego. You’re already twice as badass as I’ll ever be. I’m having some kind of weird form of penis envy already.”
Shattered Focus (A Paranormal, Urban, Fantasy Novella) (Focus Series Book 3) Page 2
