An insult for me and my warden; at least Claire was consistent.
“How do we get rid of it?” It was the question I’d planned on asking Val when Claire interrupted.
“See that spot?” Claire asked, pointing to the pulsing black circle of atrum hardly larger than a quarter beneath the wraith. “That’s the anchor.”
I hadn’t noticed the spot before she pointed it out, having been too distracted by the faces. Now that I studied the tiny dot, I realized the wraith’s upper body didn’t quite meet the anchor. A gap of empty air existed between the two pieces.
“It’s floating.”
“Duh. That’s, like, a projection.” She pointed to the wraith. Then she pointed to the anchor. “That’s the source. Or what we can see of it. Anchors tunnel down, like roots.”
I peeked at Claire to see if she was pulling one over on the new girl. For once, she looked earnest.
“Spiral lux lucis into that spot until it disappears.”
“Spiral?”
“You know.” She pointed her finger at the ground and spun it in a circle. “Spiral.”
“I know what ‘spiral’ means. I don’t know how to do it.”
“Don’t you know anything?”
“I can loop—”
Her sigh cut me off. “Watch.” She shoved her palm into my face. I flinched and she gave me a saccharine smile. Lux lucis collected in her hand, then flicked over her thumb and reappeared swirling around her pinkie, splashed across her palm, and disappeared to the back of her hand again. The second time around, it spiraled up to her fingertips. They flared bright as the energy backed up with nowhere to go.
“Is that going to be too much for you?”
I glowered.
Claire drummed her foot while I gave spiraling a try. It was similar to looping energy, but harder, because rather than uniformly moving the energy around my entire hand, I had to move the energy in spinning increments up my hand, from my palm to my fingertips. Claire’s quick demonstration had been blatant showing off, proving she not only had more knowledge but also better control and possibly more strength, despite being eight years my junior. I kept flubbing the process and ending up looping all the lux lucis in a single sweep around my palm.
Claire huffed. “Just let me.”
She flounced toward the wraith, but I grabbed her arm to stop her. She glared at my hand holding her.
“I need to learn how to do this,” I said. I’d rather be getting a lesson from anyone else, but given the fact that I’d been sequestered to cito duty while evil overran my region because of my lack of experience, I couldn’t let personal bias stand between me and any bit of useful knowledge. Gritting my teeth, I added, “Please.”
“Hurry up.”
“Right.” I didn’t need Claire to tell me it was dangerous to postpone destroying the wraith; in the scant time we’d been in the hallway, the wraith had grown a few inches in height with each victim who walked through it. If it could induce the original emotion in others, as Val had said, it was only a matter of time before it influenced another person to attempt a kidnapping.
Foot tapping, Claire watched an approaching man. When he drew close to the wraith, she suddenly stepped into his path, forcing him to go around her and down the safe side of the hallway. Then she stomped back to my side, dividing her attention between me and the hall. Her fidgeting ate into my concentration.
“Focus!” she demanded. “You totally lack control. Build energy in your palm, then move it up your fingers.”
She deigned to demonstrate again, slower this time, and I saw what she meant. It took two more attempts, but using my left palm as a pretend anchor, I eventually spiraled lux lucis through my right palm and up my fingers. The spinning energy released into my left hand with a feeling like wind against my soul.
“Whoa.” I shook my left palm. I would have said it tickled, but my soul didn’t have the right receptors.
“Finally. Now do that right into the anchor.”
I eased closer to the wraith. The face observing me swiveled to keep me dead in its sights. Cold black eyes watched the lux lucis gather in my hand, then slowly spiral toward the tip. When I was certain I had the energy moving correctly, I crouched and duck-walked forward. The face moved with me, sinking down to eye level, distorting around the thinner circumference near the base. My antics earned me more stares from people in the hallway. Unable to see the monstrosity, they saw only a woman waddling across the wide tile hall, one hand raised in a frozen wave. Since I could see the wraith, I didn’t care what they thought.
With the energy spiraling through my hand, I touched my fingers to the floor, right on top of the anchor. Lux lucis whirled from my fingers into the tile. The wraith arced above me, then engulfed me in darkness. A whimper half escaped my throat as goose bumps raced down my arms and legs. Claire snickered. Just as quickly, the wraith flopped the other direction, dwindling in size.
I shoved more energy into the anchor. Lux lucis tunneled into the floor, disappearing into the tile. The wraith shrank in proportion, as if my lux lucis were a drain, sucking the horror into the floor. It wasn’t until the wraith winked out that lux lucis built up on the tile and spread in a pool at my feet.
“Overkill much?” Claire rolled her eyes at me and tromped off.
I stood and wiped shaky fingers down my pants, then pulled out Val.
Nice move, partner.
“Thanks. That was scary.”
I know. Your palms are sweaty.
“Sorry.” I wiped them on my pants again, then asked, “Anything to add?”
It was nice to do something other than hunt citos.
The comment surprised me almost as much as the praise. It was the first time Val had showed an interest in what we were doing. “Getting tired of the mall?”
I think we should go back to the bookstore.
“Any reason in particular?” I pulled a spray bottle out of my purse and prepared to step back into the main traffic.
To free the books, of course.
I couldn’t tell if he was joking.
* * *
The day didn’t get much better. The three of us worked nonstop, never clearing the citos but at least thinning the masses, and if I counted anything a success, it was that no more wraiths formed on my watch. As far as victories went, it was lackluster.
In a last-ditch effort to thin the cito population, Jacob, Claire, and I divided the three most traffic-heavy exits between us when the mall closed, and I chose the doors closest to the garage. When I stepped outside with the last of the shoppers, the world tilted toward the garage. On faltering steps, I wove through the stragglers, a jittery energy dancing down my spine. Then the plastic-wrapped construction site came into view and all thoughts of my tired feet and the overgrown citos escaping on shoppers fell away. Blindly, I ran to the garage.
I didn’t remember squeezing through the fence or checking for witnesses to my trespassing. I was running through the dark alleyway; then I was inside the plastic around the garage’s framework, staring at the magnetic, hypnotic energy.
Lux lucis billowed from the sunken ground, atrum riding the inner wall of the enormous bubble like a second skin. Higher and higher it swelled, like an inflating hot-air balloon, arching past the steel beams of the first floor, then the second. The bubble grew wider as it gained in height, until the rim reached the fifth floor and expanded like a roof above me.
“Shit, shit, shit,” I chanted, staring in horror at the mass of deadly power. The energy moved silently, only the sounds of my whispered words and the shush-shush of plastic sliding against itself filling the still space of the garage. Crouching, I squinted toward the crater. The wraith came to mind, specifically its anchor. Maybe this energy had an anchor, too, buried in the bottom of the crater. If so, too much lux lucis and atrum swelled between me and the enormous divot to pinpoint a source.
Something tapped my head. I spun around, but nothing was there. Another tap, this time on my shoulder. I spun
again. Nothing. I stood still after the next tap. It was soft, like a raindrop against the skin while swimming, absorbed as quickly as I felt it.
Another submerged drop hit my back, only this time it stung. I tipped my head back.
A thunderstorm of lux lucis and atrum bubbled and swelled to fill the edges of the plastic enclosure, releasing droplets of raw Primordium energy. Fat lux lucis drops splattered soundlessly across the ground. They soaked into the dirt, leaving no trace behind. When the drops landed on my skin, they absorbed into me, too.
It was atrum drops that made my heart pound in my chest. Quarter-size drops of pure evil energy fell with random consistency, soaking into the ground as quickly as the lux lucis did. Just as easily, dollops of atrum soaked into my skin where they hit, stinging as the inky drops contaminated my soul.
“Holy shit.”
I lurched into action, sprinting for the plastic opening. Another atrum drop speared my scalp. Sliding through the half-dried mud by the fence, I glanced up. The clouds of raw energy stretched beyond the parking garage, heavy tendrils questing.
My sweater snagged on the fence and I jerked it free. Another dozen step, then I chanced a glance over my shoulder. The storm deflated, swirling dark and light energy sucking back into the confines of the garage.
I collapsed against a wall of bare white ivy vines, pulling lux lucis from them to exterminate the contamination of atrum on my soul. When I glanced up, a brilliant white man marched out from between the buildings, headed for the fence.
“Jacob,” I said.
He jumped. I think he tried to spin around, but with his hands full, he ended up swaying in place. A heavy bag slipped from his right hand and clunked against the cement.
“Christ, Madison! What are you doing? Were you inside?”
“Whatever’s in there just turned into a Primordium storm. I don’t think it’s under control, like you and Isabel say.”
“Oh. And you think you could control it?”
I flinched at the hostility in his tone. “You’re kidding, right? I don’t know what that thing is, but it scares me, and it can’t be good for your region. I’m just here to help.”
“I’m supposed to believe Brad didn’t tell you exactly what’s inside?”
“He won’t tell me crap.” I didn’t add that Mr. Pitt had denied me knowledge for my supposed safety. Staring into Jacob’s accusatory glare, it occurred to me that Mr. Pitt hadn’t specified what—or who—my continued lack of knowledge kept me safe from. Hadn’t he said my ignorance was my only defense? With complete honesty, I added, “Mr. Pitt told me to focus on the citos. I think he’s afraid if I muck this up, he’ll be out of a job.”
Jacob stared at me, weighing my words. Trying not to fidget and simultaneously ignore the massive energy’s pull, I waited for him to offer an explanation for his bizarre reaction. Finally, he blinked and stooped to grab the handles of the bag he’d dropped.
“It’s a pooka.”
“What’s a pooka?” I crossed my fingers behind my back, hoping I was making the right call. If Mr. Pitt had seen the enormous swell of energy a few minutes ago, I was certain he would have lifted his ban on information.
“A pooka’s a dangerous, powerful creature. Unaligned, it’s deadly.”
“I thought you said you had this thing under control.”
“I did.”
“And now you don’t? It’s hard to tell the difference.” Anger nipped my words, but darn it, he and Isabel had been all assurances for three days, and now he told me it was deadly. What had they been waiting for? The end of the weekend?
“Before, it was dormant. Now it’s rising.” Jacob set everything on the ground and unzipped a duffel bag. “I can’t play mentor right now, Madison. Stay. Go. I don’t care. Just keep out of the way.”
Charming. I stalked to his side, arms crossed. Jacob lifted bolt cutters from the bag and snapped through the chain holding the fence closed. He swung the gate wide, then collected his gear.
“Why do you have a spear gun?” I’d never seen one before, but the harpoon shape was unmistakable.
“Pookas always rise in their largest form.”
“So you’re going to kill it?”
He sighed and finally turned to look me in the eye. I danced back to save my shins from scraping against the barbed tip of the spear. “If I have to. It’s too dangerous to leave loose.”
Jacob marched across the dirt and through the sheet of plastic into the garage. I checked the sky. The wild energy had deflated, but I’d seen its power. The storm cloud had contained more than enough atrum to snuff out my soul three times over. Yet despite the danger, it took concentrated willpower to resist the pooka’s call.
My pulse dancing in my throat, I jogged back into the den of insanity.
* * *
“Who has a spear gun lying around?” I asked, trying to sound composed. My gaze locked on the pit.
It appeared calm, as if minutes earlier it had never so much as dreamed of swallowing the entire structure. From where I forced my feet to stop near the plastic, I could barely see atrum lapping gently around the edges of the crater and lux lucis sprouting in small knee-high fountains.
Jacob examined the energy, boldly standing at the rim of the crater. I almost called out a warning to him, fearing he was in the pooka’s thrall, but he appeared more annoyed than entranced. Against the swirling backdrop, his soul glowed solid and pure, sizzling with harnessed energy. The young enforcer rubbed his hands down his pants, then chaffed his palms together.
His small concession to nerves pleased a pettiness in me; even the big bad wunderkind enforcer was scared.
Smarter parts of me were alarmed by the tiny crack in Jacob’s confidence.
Fumbling into my purse, I pulled out my pet wood and stuffed it into my jeans’ rear pocket. I tucked my sweater into my pants and cupped the hilt of the belt knife at the small of my back. I pulled it loose, then sheathed it again.
Dropping my purse atop a duffel bag, I gave in to the compulsion and crossed the garage. I stopped well short of the lip of the pit.
“I think I know how a moth feels,” I said. “All that energy, it calls to me, even though I know it’s deadly, too.” I pulled my gaze from the hypnotic black-and-white energy to meet Jacob’s assessing gaze. “You know what I mean?”
Jacob snorted and stalked past me to his supplies. I turned reluctantly away from the pit and followed him.
“You don’t feel it?” I asked.
“I’m a little too experienced to get all tingly about some ball of energy.”
Tingly was a far cry from my urge to rush to the pit and throw myself into the energy, but Jacob’s superior attitude quashed my desire to explain. Striving for a neutral tone but succeeding only in making myself sound monotone, I asked, “What’s your plan?”
“Capture the pooka, then leash it to me.”
“You’re not going to kill it?” My light-headed relief swelled out of context with his statement, lifting a weight I didn’t remember shouldering. It would take the lux lucis of half a forest of redwoods to quell the atrum in the pooka, but maybe if we worked together, we could make a dent.
“Not if I can tether it. Killing it is a last resort.”
My gut knotted around a lump of lead. The pooka’s boatload of atrum made me want to put another hundred feet between us, but it also possessed an equal amount of blazing-bright lux lucis. Any creature with that much good energy couldn’t be evil. My encounter with it last night had proved as much. Yes, it had knocked me unconscious, but I’d woken with a stronger soul than I’d fallen asleep with. It could just as easily have layered me with atrum.
My logic tightened the knot in my stomach. “How do we capture it?”
“The same way you catch anything. With a net.” Jacob strode back to crouch beside his pile of supplies. I followed, blinking to normal vision to get a better view of his arsenal. In addition to the harpoon, he had a slender sword, a shotgun, and another gun with a barrel ha
lf as long as the shotgun but three times as wide.
“You said pookas rise in their largest form. What did you mean—”
My feet chilled. I looked down. Mud coated my white and orange tennis shoes and splashed up the hem of my pants. It wasn’t a pretty sight, but it wasn’t responsible for the cold that washed along my shins and feet.
“Holy mother of a poltergeist!” Jacob leapt to his feet.
I blinked to Primordium and screamed.
Fluffy black imps swarmed into the construction site, oozing under the plastic in every direction. Clumps darted through my legs, smearing my soul with flecks of stinging atrum, but none paused to snack. In a mindless mass, they rushed to the pit. Movement at eye level spun me around; vervet scaled the concrete pillars with razor claws and swung along beams above us on the second and third floors, converging over the pool of energy. Whatever a pooka was, it had as much pull over these evil creatures as it did over me.
My left hand clutched the pet wood; my right gripped the belt knife. I didn’t remember grabbing either. I forgot how to breathe. Already the garage thronged with more evil creatures than I’d killed in the last week, and more kept coming. Atrum smeared across my ankles, creeping upward. I swung to face the plastic, spearing the extended wand through the next clump of imps headed my way. Beside me, Jacob held the shining fencing sword but didn’t move.
“A little help,” I said.
“What are they doing?”
I dispatched a cluster of imps and followed Jacob’s perplexed stare. Above us, the vervet crowded the gray beams, scratching and clawing each other. It was typical vervet behavior, and the only thing holding my panic at bay. So long as they remained occupied and out of range, we could concentrate on the imps first.
A kamikaze vervet leapt from the rafters into the pit.
Lux lucis sucked the vervet under like a giant vacuum, leaving no trace of its black body. Three more jumped to their deaths. I relaxed my white-knuckle grip on the pet wood. Maybe this battle wouldn’t be so bad; we could let the pooka do the work.
A snarl of vervet fell into the pit midfight. My cheer caught in my throat: Most vervet died, but those that landed in atrum rather than lux lucis leapt free at twice their previous size.
A Fistful of Fire: An Urban Fantasy Novel (Madison Fox, Illuminant Enforcer Book 2) Page 19
