Phaze

by S. C. Mitchell

  Dove’s expression lightened. She took a deep breath and a smile played at the edges of her mouth. “Not really so crazy, if you knew John like I did. I think comic books were one of his only refuges as a child. He always had his nose in one when I knew him.”

  It suddenly all made sense. Clark, Lois, Kara, and Jimmy. Bruce, Barbara, Dick, and Alfred. “Superman and Batman.”

  Mary put her fists on her hips. “I never made that connection.”

  “He told me once that he didn’t believe he was real. That he was just a character in a comic book and one day he’d be a superhero. I think he was about eight at the time. Crazy kid.” The smile broke full upon Dove’s lips.

  So even way back then he harbored his delusion, undoubtedly as a coping mechanism for the pain of his childhood traumas.

  Mary harrumphed. “Look around you ladies. Maybe he wasn’t so crazy.”

  Chapter 22

  Mary and Dove joined Kayla for coffee. An easy camaraderie set in, over steaming cups and a plate of cookies, fresh baked by the cafeteria cooks.

  “So you’re staying on to look after the pups for a while?” Kayla took and instant liking to Dove. She’d come across as intelligent, direct, and friendly.

  Dove nodded, running her finger around the rim of her cup. “Aaron has asked me to. Someone needs to look after the pups, at least for a while, if John is going to continue to take Natasha and Wanda with him on missions.”

  “I’ve known Dove for quite a while now,” Mary said. “We worked on a couple of animal related projects in the past.”

  Dove chuckled. “The only animal you had any interest in back then was that Navy SEAL you were dating. What ever happened to him?”

  “He decided to teach me self-defense for when he shipped out. I’m a good student. By the time he came back, I could kick his ass. He lost interest.” She rolled her eyes, but a smile played across her lips. “He was fun, but it was never serious between us. No big loss.”

  The clatter of claws on tile drew Kayla’s attention as Jimmy scampered into the cafeteria, skidding on the slick flooring, careening into the door jamb, righting himself, and then continuing to trample straight toward Mary.

  Kayla would have laughed except for the growls and barks issuing from the pup’s mouth, so at odds with the usual demeanor of the playful wolf pup.

  Rory Miller followed hot on Jimmy’s heels, his heavy boots giving him only slightly more traction on the polished flooring. “We found this one scratching and whining at the back entry. As soon as I opened the door, it scampered right here. Is this okay?”

  Jimmy clamped his jaws on Mary’s pant leg, tugging and growling.

  “Did they lose you?” Mary reached down to pick up the pup.

  But Jimmy released her pant leg and yipped while scampering back toward the doorway.

  Dove rose to her feet. “I think he wants us to follow.”

  Jimmy led them straight back to the exit door. He scratched and whimpered until Mary opened it and he sprinted out toward the line of trees some one-hundred yards away.

  The forested area covered a hillside. Thick foliage and undergrowth. Undeveloped land still within the boundaries of the industrial park the Xi Force Headquarters stood in.

  With the late autumn warmth and mild weather, the deciduous forest canopy still blossomed with brightly colored leaves. A dense cover of weeds and bushes carpeted the ground. Jimmy bounded into the thick vegetation. In places only the ripple of the tall grasses told of his location.

  Rory ploughed a path after him. “I hope we’re not just chasing a squirrel.”

  Kayla, Mary, and Dove followed in his wake.

  Mary’s defense held an indignant tone. “He’s not chasing a squirrel. He’s scared.”

  Once fully under the cover of the trees, Kayla knew something was drastically wrong. She’d hiked these woods countless times. The forest was usually alive with sounds. Birds chirped in the trees, insects buzzed through the air, and small animals scurried through the underbrush.

  Now, outside of the noise they made scuttling after Jimmy, the forest was silent and still.

  “I’ve got a really bad feeling about this.”

  Then a cry split the silence. Agony, desperation. A growl of anger.

  Wylde.

  “That’s John.” Dove picked up her pace, sprinting ahead of Rory and Jimmy toward the sound. She moved like a gazelle, all grace and power.

  Kayla ran to catch up.

  The dense foliage cleared ahead. A grassy oval ringed with trees, but open to the bright sky.

  In the clearing a frightening tableau held.

  Wylde was pinned to a tree trunk. Glowing purple bands of energy ringed his arms and legs. His wolf pack lay motionless in the grass around him.

  No. Wylde had already lost so much. This couldn’t be.

  In front of him, Amber stood, her sword driven into his stomach. He arched his back and growled at her as waves of orange–tinged energy radiated up the blade and into Amber’s hand.

  She was totally Amber now. No dark hair. No leathery wings. Was this still the demon Necromance?

  “If those other fools had lived I wouldn’t even need you.” Her gaze locked on Wylde, Amber didn’t seem to notice their approach until Jimmy growled as he bounded toward her.

  Amber spun. “Stupid cur. You shouldn’t have come back.”

  Keeping the sword firmly anchored in Wylde with her right hand, she fisted her left and a ball of energy coalesced around it.

  “Jimmy, look out.” Mary dashed forward, grabbing up the pup and curling her body around it just as Amber sent the sparking sphere hurtling toward them.

  The bolt hit Mary in the back as she spun to protect Jimmy. “Ugh.”

  She dropped to the ground, energy crackling around her curled up form.

  Kayla’s mind whirled. She had to stop this, but how?

  “Drop the sword and put your hands up.” Rory leveled his sidearm at Amber.

  Another bolt of energy began to coalesce around Amber’s fist. Protocol could to get Rory killed.

  “Just shoot her,” Kayla shouted as she charged at Amber. She phased, hoping any attacks at her would pass harmlessly through, but who knew what effect that energy attack would have.

  Shots rang out behind her, ricocheting off some kind of invisible barrier around Amber.

  Kayla didn’t have her suit on, or her POS. She hadn’t even strapped on her Glock, though it didn’t appear that it would have helped anyway. Energy bolts, a force field, Amber was showing off all kinds of new powers. This did not look good.

  Amber flung the energy bolt and Rory was thrown back and down.

  “Leave me alone. I don’t want to kill anyone.” Eyes wide, a crazed expression on her face, Amber once again drove the sword into Wylde’s gut.

  “You’ve got a stupid way of showing it.” Kayla solidified and launched a roundhouse kick at her, but only connected with the shield surrounding her.

  “Ouch. Crap.” That hurt. Maybe she could phase through the shielding.

  But this time, as the darkness coalesced in her peripheral vision, she noted the shimmering form of a small girl on her right.

  “I found Necromance . . . Oh, hi there. How did you get here?” The high-pitched voice sounded distant and resonant, as if heard from down a tunnel.

  “Hello?” Was the voice talking to her?

  “Are you lost? Did you die?”

  When Kayla looked directly at the girl, all she could see were the trees ringing the clearing to her right. Was someone in that other dimension?

  Kayla solidified, and the girl disappeared from her peripheral vision.

  Then strong fingers locked around her neck, lifting her up off the ground.

  Amber sneered as she pu
lled her close. “Wylde will be fine once I’m done with him. You, on the other hand, I should kill. You stole Joel from me. You made me kill him.”

  Kayla kicked, struggling to free herself. “Joel was never yours.”

  Wylde slumped as Amber pulled the sword from his gaping wound. She positioned the point of the sword at Kayla’s stomach.

  “One death I can probably handle. And yours will be so satisfying.”

  Ignoring the choking effects of Amber’s hold on her neck, Kayla brought both legs up and kicked out with everything she had. Then she phased again, falling through Amber’s fingers.

  Amber fell back, dropping to the ground. “You’ll pay for that.” She vaulted to her feet, sword at the ready.

  Kayla rolled too late to avoid the incoming thrust of the sword, but she knew it would pass through her insubstantial form anyway.

  It didn’t.

  Pain shot down her arm as the sharp blade sliced a red line down her shoulder. Somehow the sword could cut her even when she was phased.

  Or was she phased? Had her powers somehow failed her?

  “Look out.” The little girl’s voice jolted Kayla to action as the blade glided toward her once again.

  She flipped back just in time to avoid a swing that could have decapitated her.

  Crap.

  How long would she be able to keep this up? Amber had the advantage. On her feet with the longer reach of the sword. And Kayla’s powers didn’t seem to be working.

  A growl issued from behind Kayla. A blur of gray fur struck Amber from the side, sending her reeling back.

  The creature bounded back, landing on two feet. Facial features of a wolf, with a long snout and fangs, it stood like a man.

  No. It stood like a woman. And it wore Mary’s clothing.

  What the hell?

  “Kayla, move.” The gravelly voice wasn’t Mary’s. Lower toned, guttural.

  Still, Kayla executed a roll to her feet.

  Amber knelt, sneering, her fist glowing brightly with energy. “Die, die, die.”

  Kayla bounded to the side as the sizzling energy bolt flew past, burning a black pathway in the grasses behind her.

  Dark streaks ran down Amber’s auburn hair. Her skin tone paled. “No, no, you can’t have me again.”

  Who the hell was she talking to?

  Bat wings burst from Amber’s back as she took on the demon’s form. Amber’s tone lowered and took on a growling timber. “You need me.”

  There was more than one battle being fought here. Amber and Necromance didn’t seem to be on the same page.

  With surprising speed, the demon creature launched her sword at Kayla. “You die now.”

  “I don’t think so, demon.” The voice came from behind Kayla. Deep, masculine tones with a Hispanic accent. “Soom pollion Tsargon.”

  A hemisphere of transparent white light appeared around Kayla. The sword point struck it and bounced to the side.

  Kayla expelled the breath she’d been holding.

  A man floated over her.

  Floated.

  Like, six feet above the ground with no visible means of support.

  A gray business suit, crisp white shirt, and necktie. The guy was GQ on a stick.

  “You okay, señorita?” Intense brown eyes, glanced quickly down at her then back up. A neatly trimmed goatee matched the raven black hair on his head that contained just a hint of gray at the temples.

  The man exuded style, confidence, and a sexy bit of swagger as he floated down to stand on the ground between her and Necromance. And that handsome face, so familiar. Where had she seen him before?

  And why, foremost in her thoughts, was she thinking the man seriously needed a cape?

  “You would be El Brujo. Your reputation precedes you.” Necromance snarled, taking a step forward.

  El Brujo? Wasn’t that what they called . . .?

  The sphere around her dissolved and Kayla scrambled to her feet. The creature wearing Mary’s clothing stepped up beside her. At the edge of the clearing, Dove knelt beside Rory’s still body.

  The man, El Brujo, had his hands palms out, spiraling his arms as an oval of shimmering energy built in front of him. “Drop the sword and leave the woman. This doesn’t have to get ugly, demon.”

  Necromance threw back its head, laughing. “I am the sword, the Death Blade, but I am not the demon.”

  With a flap of her wings, Necromance lifted from the ground. “I own the demon.”

  Twin beams of energy blasted from her fisted hands, striking El Brujo’s shield.

  His eyes widened as they cut through, blasting him back and down to the ground.

  The demon looked at Kayla. The eyes were green. Amber’s eyes. “I would kill him. The death of a warlock would unleash untold power. But I can only afford one death today. Yours.”

  Sword pointed straight at her, Necromance dove toward Kayla.

  Chapter 23

  A three-story, brick and adobe townhouse in the Condesa district of Mexico City didn’t stand out from the buildings around it. But as the drone-captured video, displaying on Kirk’s 9-panel computer display, closed in on one of the upper windows, it clearly showed that room—the library in Carlos Diego’s home where Joel had been as a ghost. The book shelves, the desk with its clutter of books and papers, the laptop computer. Everything except the man himself.

  “That’s the place. Is he there?” Carlos Diego had to have found out something about Necromance by now. And Joel needed all the information he could get his hands on.

  Aaron shook his head. “No one is answering the door. That’s why I had them launch the drone. At least we know where he lives now. I’ll keep some agents on the place until someone shows up.”

  “Maybe I should—”

  The lights flashed in the room.

  On and off. On and off. Three short flashes, followed by three longer outages, followed by another three short flashes.

  “What the hell?” Aaron stared at the switch by the door. No one was anywhere near it.

  Bringing up some windows on his screen, Kirk shook his head. “Computers stayed up, and there’s no problem reported in the building’s power grid. Bad circuit?”

  Or.

  Joel scanned the room, which he then realized was stupid. He wouldn’t be able to see her even if she was here. “Olivia?”

  Another series of flashes from the overhead lights. Three short, three long, three short.

  An S.O.S. from a ghost?

  “What do you need?” How could she even answer that question with flashing lights? He’d probably need to ask yes-or-no questions.

  The lights began flashing in the hallway outside the room.

  “Go there? One flash for yes. Two flashes for no.”

  A single flash from the hallway.

  Joel raced out, checking left and right down the hallway. Aaron and Chris followed on his heels.

  Placing a hand on his shoulder, Aaron pulled him around. “What’s going on?”

  “Carlos Diego’s sister is a ghost. I think she’s here, and trying to tell me something.”

  Aaron leveled his gaze. “Are you serious?”

  “Dead serious.”

  To Joel’s left, lights began flashing, so he headed that way. Around the corner and down the hallway toward the north exit of the building he followed the trail of flashing lights.

  The usual door guard wasn’t anywhere in sight. Since the attack on the compound, Jason Pike kept one of his men at each doorway into the building 24/7.

  “Outside?”

  The EXIT sign flashed once.

  As he stepped through the doorway, he scanned the open grounds, a hundred yards of green lawn that led up to a dense forested area behind th
e compound.

  How was Olivia going to be able to lead him out here, in broad daylight with no electrical devices?

  Maybe she wouldn’t have to.

  He messaged Kirk.

  Joel: Kirk, I need thermal imaging, stat. And tell Jason Pike he’s missing a man at the north exit.

  As the app loaded into his internal computer, his vision blurred for a second. Then the bright colors overlaid the objects in his field of view.

  To the north-east, brighter orange and yellow shapes showed through the dark blue of the forest. People. “This way.”

  At a sprint, Joel headed toward the tree line, Chris and Aaron right behind.

  ~ ~ ~

  Kayla phased and rolled, praying the sword blade would pass through her without harm. She doubted she could dodge the blade.

  “No.” The creature in Mary’s clothes leapt toward Necromance, long-taloned claws raking toward the demon’s face.

  A shadow from Kayla’s left bounded toward her attacker—Wylde, grabbing at the sword arm, pushing the blade to the side. Still, the sharp point dragged across Kayla’s upper arm, drawing another line of blood just below her bleeding shoulder.

  “Ouch. Crap.” Her arm pulsed with pain.

  If she only had her POS, or better yet, her Glock. Something to attack the demon out of range of that sword.

  “Back off, Amber.” Joel’s voice boomed from behind them.

  The demon’s eyes widened, going green once again. Auburn streaked its ebony locks. “Joel?”

  She took a step back as she reverted completely to Amber’s form. “You’re alive?”

  “No thanks to you.” Steel coated his tone. “Drop that sword and give yourself up.”

  “Joel, I . . . it wasn’t me. The demon killed you, but I have it controlled now. And you’re back. We can make this work.”

  El Brujo hovered in the air behind her, his hands weaving an intricate pattern as a net of pure energy formed over Amber.