“Like I said, it’s really a new power for you, so you don’t really know how to gauge the amount of energy it needs yet,” Deb said simply. “Now, if you’re ready, I’d like you to try once more, but farther out, just to make sure you’ve got the knack of it before we leave off for the day.”
“Farther out? What do you mean?”
“Jensen is just outside. I’d like you to try and reach out and find him.” Deb was still holding her teacup casually in her hand as if we were at afternoon tea, smiling serenely at me.
“Jensen doesn’t like me to read him without his permission,” I said quietly. This was one of the issues Jensen and I argued over. It was instinctive for me to read and help those closest to me, but it unnerved him and he felt it was an invasion of privacy. Of course, that made me feel rejected. But he argued that I had an unfair advantage. He worried I would try to replace his feelings with the ones I thought he should be experiencing. That wasn’t what I did at all, but he was so reluctant to let me show him I hadn’t been able to convince him otherwise. It was something of a sore subject between us.
“You aren’t reading him, honey, you’re finding him, it’s different,” Deb explained.
“If he feels it, I don’t think he’d agree with you.” I shook my head and sighed, picking at the piping on the arm of the chair.
“Well, you know Tony well enough, find him,” Deb offered quickly, knowing I didn’t want therapy today for my relationship with Jensen.
“Yeah, okay,” I agreed with a shrug. I closed my eyes again and found that swirling energy in my palm much quicker this time than before, as if it was waiting for me to call it back. I didn’t even have to peel away my signature from it this time. Tony was one of the part-time clerks that worked the cash register. He had some intuition abilities and was very good at imbibing good vibes into power tools – crystals, pentagrams and the like – but other than that he was simply Tony. Tall, lanky with sandy blonde hair that sprung sudden and bright white highlights when summer came. He had warm, comforting brown eyes, but there was nothing else extraordinary about him. I held that image in my mind, reaching out, sending that tendril of energy through the locked door and out into the store beyond.
My power skirted around the milling bodies of the thinning after-school crowd, ignoring their signatures as flotsam in a riverbed until it hit a wall just at the counter I knew Tony was standing behind. I pressed harder and it wouldn’t yield. I slid to the side looking for a crack, just like I had with Deb’s shields, but failed to find one. I pulled back a little and reached forward again, this time sliding down the wall towards the floor, finally finding the tiniest of weak spots, but it wasn’t a crack, not yet anyway. I pushed with my power and felt the give in the shield, but it didn’t break. I hesitated, like taking a breath before you throw the punch, and I shoved my energy into the shield until I felt the crack give way and slid inside.
A man was standing in front of the counter, surrounded by the shield that stretched over him until it reached Tony and encased him, like two peas in one pod. I reached my energy out to Tony and felt the overwhelming iciness of fear and pleading that shocked me and nearly broke my concentration. I steadied myself and turned my energy back to the man in front of him and reached out for him and felt fear, anger, and impatience. I prodded at him with the energy until I felt the alien sensation of metal and death – he had a gun in his pocket. With more control than I knew I had, I drew my energy back into myself without snapping it back and risking shock.
I opened my eyes and turned to Deb. “There’s a man out there! He’s got Tony at gun point!” I said in a rush, already out of my seat and rushing for the door. Deb was next to me with a hand on my wrist before I even knew she was out of her chair.
“Wait just a moment,” she said calmly, pulling me away from the door before I could get it open.
“What? Deb, did you hear me? Come on!” I heard my voice rising in panic, but Deb was calm and stepping to a panel that blended almost seamlessly into the wall opposite the door.
“And what do you expect to do against a gun, sweetie?” Deb opened the panel and pushed a large white button inside; it looked like a breaker panel for the electrical system in the store. Deb closed the panel and came back to me. “I’ve just triggered the silent alarm in case Tony didn’t hit the one at the counter. Now we’re going to be calm and rational and go out there, okay?” I nodded at her, my breathing still a little too rapid and shallow to let me trust my voice. Deb opened the door and stepped out like nothing was wrong and walked straight towards the counter. I wanted to reach out for her and pull her away from the armed man and hide her behind me, but I trusted Deb not to do anything stupid.
“Look man, I’m sorry, that’s all I got, okay?” I heard Tony pleading with the man in a whisper. I had a moment to wonder why I could hear Tony whispering this far away before the robber realized Deb and I were approaching and turned his attention to us.
“That’s close enough,” he said calmly, one hand inside his jacket pocket, pointing it at Deb. A jacket in eighty degree weather, what did Tony think the guy was doing?
“That’s fine, but I’m the manager, perhaps I can help you better than Tony can?” Deb’s voice was level and calm, as if she was talking to an everyday customer.
“Oh, yeah, but don’t try anything, no one needs to get hurt here.” He waved her behind the counter and I started moving with her. “No, you stay where you are,” he pointed his jacket at me and I froze where I was, still more than three feet away. I didn’t understand why none of the customers seemed to care that Deb and Tony were being robbed.
“Sir, if you could just keep that pointed at me? That would be fine,” Deb said with a smile. She looked down into the open cash register and then back up at the armed man. “It looks like Tony has already helped you all that we can. Was there something else?” I noticed the shopping bag on the counter and assumed the cash register was already empty.
“Yeah, you can open the safe under the counter and give me that as well.” His voice was arrogant but still threaded with the desperate fear I’d felt earlier. I could smell his sweat mixing with stale cigarette smoke and old coffee.
“No, I’m afraid I can’t do that,” Deb said simply. “It’s a key lock and only the Armored Truck men have a key to open it. See, we put the money in a slot that rotates down and drops the money inside. We can’t open it.”
“That’s bullshit!” The man leaned over the counter, putting his face closer to Deb’s but keeping his voice at a strained whisper. Again I wanted to grab Deb and pull her away from him, but I stayed still, watching.
“Sir, I’m sorry, I don’t know what you want me to do about it,” Deb said, and I noticed that Tony was inching farther away from her.
“Oh, you bitch!” The man yelled and I suddenly heard the distant wail of sirens growing as the police finally started to arrive. Everyone in the store turned at the sound of his yell. I felt Jensen walking towards me but I sent a wall of energy up in front of him, stopping him in his tracks to keep him back. I heard screams and shrieks of the girls closest to the man and turned to see that he had pulled his gun out of his pocket and had it in clear view of those around him. “You stupid bitch!” he yelled again and started to raise his arm up.
I screamed and time slowed to an unimaginable crawl. I could see every detail in front of me, from the slow blink of Deb’s large brown eyes to the tears welling in Tony’s, who was now frozen in place. The man was raising the gun up while his empty hand was reaching for the bag of money on the counter. I saw the tension in his body slowly grip him and knew I only had seconds to act. I grabbed hold of the ever-present swirling earth energy that pulsed in the middle of my body and forced all of my energy down in a violent, spinning vortex into the ground below the floor, wood, and cement foundation of the building. The Earth rocked back just as violently and I heard more screams as the familiar rumbling thunder of an earthquake flooded my ears and the glass shelves behind the man shook
and tipped back until it was one falling mass of jewelry and crystals and glass.
The earthquake knocked the man down in its ferocity, causing his arm to arc up towards the ceiling. He had already begun to squeeze the trigger when he was knocked over. The gunshot reverberated over the sounds of shattering glass and his screams of pain as he landed in the mess of shattered glass. The bullet struck home in the ceiling, missing Deb entirely, and I fell to my knees as the power slammed back into me, trying to balance it again. I was completely spent as the police came running in against the tide of girls trying to get out. Jensen was at my side, free of the shield that I could no longer hold in place and was propping me up in his arms gently.
Distantly I could hear the raised voices of the officers intermingled with the screams of the robber under the jagged shards of glass, calling for an ambulance. His clothing was torn in some places, but his face wasn’t much more than a mass of ribbons, glittering with crystals and clear glass. I felt the earth rumble again, settling back into its natural shifting rotation and releasing me. Jensen was whispering to me but I couldn’t hear him over the screams of the robber and the rush of my blood in my ears. I watched his mouth make the shape of comforting words before the world became black.
Chapter 2
“That’s it. Come on, honey, wake up.” Deb’s voice floated back to me in the abyss, a lifeline drawing me to the surface of the black water surrounding me. “Honey, if you don’t wake up the EMTs are gonna want to take you to the hospital.” That did it. My body at an awkward angle, my legs on a hard surface and my back and shoulders cradled against another body. I concentrated on opening my eyes, blinking against the glare of overhead lights in the store.
“There she is,” a familiar male voice said very close to my ear, warm breath coming through the curtain of hair hanging on the side of my face. My vision was still blurred as if I had gone to sleep and hadn’t gotten enough hours before being woken. “Shay? Can you hear me?” It took longer than it should have for me to realize it was Jensen talking to me and holding me against him. I could feel his heart beating against my back, finding an off-rhythm to the beat of my own.
“Yeah,” I said in a rough whisper, thicker than my normal voice. “What happened?”
“Later, later.” I felt his arms tighten around me, hugging me closer to him, and he pressed a kiss to my hair before resting his cheek there.
“Okay, she’s awake, just fainted, no problem!” Deb said cheerfully as she stood up and turned to face the waiting EMTs behind her.
“We should really check and make sure there’s no trauma to her head,” one of the men said, starting to step around Deb. I watched as Deb reached a hand out to the man, touching his bare forearm, and felt the prickling of her magic dance on my skin and could taste the cloves in my mouth.
“I’m sure she’s fine,” Deb’s usual lovely voice sounded even softer, melodic, almost hypnotic. The man’s eyes glazed over just for a moment as Deb’s Jedi mind trick convinced him I wasn’t the droid he was looking for.
“Yeah, she looks fine to me,” he responded in a monotone before he blinked his vision clear and took back the step he had made towards me. “Alright, little lady,” I cringed, “you just be careful and if you start to get a headache or anything out of the ordinary, be sure to come down to the hospital.” I gave him a smile that I knew didn’t reach my eyes and tried to sit up straighter in Jensen’s arms without really pulling away from him. Deb walked out with the men, careful of all of the glittering shambles of glass and crystals all over the floor.
“How did she do that?” Jensen whispered to me, and, for the first time, his voice didn’t cause shivers to run down my spine.
“If you don’t like my powers, you don’t want to know,” I said, I heard how sullen my voice sounded and pulled away from him to sit up on my own. Jensen released me a little reluctantly but helped me, putting his hands on my shoulders until I was steady. We were standing by the time Deb came back.
“You okay, Shayna?” she asked, reaching a hand out for mine. I took her hand willingly, stepping closer to her and away from Jensen. We both closed our eyes and automatically opened the channel between us, my senses overwhelmed with damp earth, moss and clovers mingling together. I felt the wooziness draining away from me and my legs becoming steadier. Deb eased away from me, drawing away the scent of cloves until I came back to myself and felt stronger than I had just moments ago.
“Better now,” I said, smiling at her. “What happened?” I asked, looking between her and Jensen, the store now empty of anyone else.
“You over did it a bit and it drained you, honey,” Deb said simply, walking around us and over to the storage closet where she got a broom and dustpan.
“You’re not seriously going to try and clean this up yourself, are you?” Jensen said, stepping in front of her as if he meant to bar her way.
“No, no,” she laughed, lighting up her entire face. “I’m just going to clear a path for us. Nancy is on her way, she’ll call people to come clean it professionally.” Nancy was the owner of the store and oddly was one of the least magically gifted people who knew about metaphysics that I’d ever met.
“What do you mean I over did it?” I asked, bringing their attention back to me.
“Well, do you remember last fall when you caused that boy to break his collarbone?” Deb asked, casual as could be, sweeping a narrow path in the glittering mass. I felt Jensen shift uncomfortably next to me.
“Yes,” I said. My friend Tracy had been dating a physically and sexually abusive football player in the beginning of the school year. One night I had come upon them in his over-compensating pick-up truck and heard her cries of pain. Once I had gotten Tracy out of his clutches he had tried to lunge for us. In my anger and panic, I had caused a small earthquake to open a large crack at his feet in the sidewalk. Nick had twisted his ankle and fell hard on the cement, cracking his collarbone, keeping him from playing football the rest of the year and ruining any chance of a football scholarship he might’ve landed that season. Karma’s a bitch and so am I.
“Well, it looked very similar to what you described to me from that night. He fell on top of the shelves as they shattered. He’s on his way to the emergency room now.” Deb finished her explanation just as she made it to the front door and set the broom aside. “When you use that much raw power, you drain yourself because you’re not controlling what you’re doing.”
“I didn’t mean to do it, but I could see that he was about to pull the trigger and I don’t really know what happened then.” I shook my head, bringing my hand up to my forehead, confused.
“No, he wasn’t about to pull the trigger, he did pull it,” Jensen said pointing up to the ceiling where I saw the dime sized hole staring back at me. I felt my stomach flip and held out a hand to Jensen to steady myself.
“Yes,” Deb said, making her way back to me and pulled me into a hug. Her long, dark hair scented with vanilla and jasmine tickled my face. “Thank you, love, he would’ve found his mark had you not been here.” I knew I was crying so I held on tighter to her until I could control myself. Deb didn’t mind, she held on like a mother would.
“Oh my god!” I heard Nancy’s raised and terrified voice from the front of the store. I pulled away from Deb so she could go to her and start explaining. I listened as she told Nancy the same story I assumed she told the police to explain the mess: The man had heard the sirens of the police cruisers and instinctively turned towards the door and in his momentum he slipped on a fallen crystal no one had noticed before. He stumbled backwards and caught himself on the shelves behind him but they gave under his weight, causing him to discharge the gun and hit the ceiling.
I watched the emotions war over Nancy’s face while she listened, knowing that she was getting a very edited version of the truth, but couldn’t say so without accusing Deb of lying to her, and that was something you just didn’t do.
“Listen, Deb, now that Nancy’s here to help, I think we shoul
d go,” I said, happy to hear how steady and normal my voice sounded. I reached a hand back for Jensen and led the way to the front of the store. I stopped and hugged Deb tightly again before turning to Nancy. “Listen, Nancy, if you need any help, call me. Jodi, Steven and I’ll be down in a heartbeat, okay?” I touched her forearm and leaned in and pressed my cheek to hers and kissed at the air. She mimicked me.
“Thanks, honey, and thanks for staying with Deb until I got here,” Nancy said, her eyes glittering like the broken glass on the floor behind unshed tears. I did not want to be around to hear the call to the insurance company.
Twenty minutes later we got to the restaurant only ten minutes late for dinner with everyone. What I thought had taken hours had all happened in less than forty minutes. Time and magic are a strange couple that I never expect to truly understand. Jensen and I recounted the events to everyone. Poor Anthony seemed at a loss as to why it was so devastating to us that this little store had been violated. Although Jay, Jodi’s boyfriend, was practically a magically null person, he knew how much we loved that store and the people inside.
Of course I had to be very careful about how we told the story, taking a cue from Deb’s version for Nancy and the cops for the benefit of Jay and especially Anthony, whom we knew precious little about. I was next to Jodi and slid my hand to hers under the table to open the channel between us so I could mindspeak to her, an ability we had developed over the years of working so closely together. Unfortunately Steven was separated from Jodi by Jay and we couldn’t invite him in. I’ll tell you what really happened later, when there aren’t prying ears around us.
What do you mean ‘what really happened?’ Jodi answered me with her yellow tinted words.
Remember Nick and his collarbone? I thought at her.
Seriously? You did that again? Her thoughts were a brighter yellow, like a noonday sun.
Elemental Series Omnibus Edition Books 1-4 Page 29
