First Destroy All Giant Monsters (The World Wide Witches Research Association)

by Carter, D. L.

  Karl kept his eyes on the road, trying to stay focused despite the tightening in his chest. Every month Mike helped him carry in the coffee supplies. Nothing was said. Nothing planned. Karl never asked for help and Mike never referred to it. He would just turn up on the right day, hang around the store until the delivery man arrived, and it just seemed natural to tag along, lift a box or two. Just being there to help with a task that could’ve been beyond Karl’s failing strength was friendship.

  Never again. Karl breathed hard, forcing air into lungs that were suddenly, chokingly overfull. Damn him for caring. Damn Mike for not going away with the rest of them. Damn him for that silver wolf, although Karl could not say why that little lump of metal worried him. He put the silly thing around his rearview mirror and it danced and caught the light as he drove. Karl ground his teeth together and tightened his grip on the wheel. Maybe it was some insider thing for people who worked for Senator what’s-his-name.

  He needed some answers.

  It would help if he had the right questions. Or someone to ask.

  Clinging to the steering wheel Karl tried to consider the problem dispassionately, and failed.

  He was convinced, had been convinced for months that he was dying. There was no disease that the doctors could find in his body, despite all the tests. Nothing that matched his symptoms on the internet. Nothing was physically wrong with him according to the medical community, but he could feel himself dwindling, saw himself aging every time he looked in the mirror. If he’d made the effort to have a misspent youth, then he’d consider the possibility that it was catching up with him. But he hadn’t. The only thing that he regretted about his past was the years with Gloria.

  Gloria.

  Gloria. His chest burned. He’d no idea why the very thought of her clawed his gut and caused his hands to shake. He had not feared her at any time in their time together. She’d had her crazy moments, her rages, but he’d ended the relationship, kicked her butt out, and she’d left. End of story.

  Karl glanced at his narrow face and graying hair in the rearview mirror. His eyes fluttered shut as his body stiffened and shuddered. When the spasms passed Karl blinked and yanked the steering wheel hard to the right as a car flashed past him, horn blaring.

  “Can’t even drive anymore,” muttered Karl, as he straightened his car back onto the correct side of the road.

  * * * * *

  “Doing an investigation in the mundane world is a waste of time,” said Amber. “I can’t see anything beyond the web’s effects. Besides they didn’t cover private detecting in my computer degree. I don’t know what to do.”

  “So?” Smoke flipped a burger and poked at a couple of ears of corn still in their husks and steaming nicely, then put the lid of his super backyard barbecue down and reached for his glass of ice water.

  Since the weather was fine, and the house didn’t object, Smoke had decreed that lunch would be barbecue on the back patio. Amber didn’t mind since she’d already confirmed that she was allowed back into the library and the downstairs bath for an overdue shower, but not into any of the bedrooms or the kitchen. The house was bending its own rules. She fully expected in a couple of days once the house was used to her new “attachment” that she’d be released from the library. It just had to get used to her.

  “So, I have to go soul-flight again.” She’d done it once; yeah, she could do it again. It was easier now. “I have a strong feeling that the center of the problem is not Laurenville. I have to follow the web to the spider.”

  “Then what?”

  “Then come home without being spotted. I’m not fighting a monster without more information.”

  “Sounds dangerous,” said Rust adding peppers to the potato salad only he would eat.

  “Is dangerous,” agreed Amber. “The books say that you can’t cast spells while in soul-flight and I’m hoping that applies to the spider as well. It’s just going to be a case of finding the center of the web without being found out myself.”

  “Since it lives in the Ethereal I wouldn’t assume so,” said Smoke. “But I haven’t heard of any spiders there so … I’m hoping that it’s a monster from the material world that’s fallen in.”

  “Clumsy,” said Lightning, carrying out a carafe of lemonade.

  “You’ll be doing the washing up,” said Manny to Amber. “Your turn.”

  “I’m not allowed in that part of the house.” Amber took a bite of apple and grinned.

  “She’ll be doing KP for a month to make up, once this is over,” declared Smoke.

  Amber shrugged. When this was over Lucinda would be back and she’d be heading to NYC, back to her life.

  “You didn’t see any sign of Lucinda or Robyn on the Ethereal?” asked Manny.

  “No. Sorry.”

  The four cousins looked away from her and Amber’s heart sank. It hadn’t taken long for her to give up the idea that this was a setup to drag her back to the magical side of the family fight. The cousins were not trying to hide their concern for the missing family members. Amber regretted her brief time of doubt. She’d pay attention this time. When she next went on a soul-flight she’d look for any sign of their auras.

  In her copious spare time.

  With luck she’d find the center of the web, see the monster, and get away without being hurt and with information that would help her plan a return attack.

  She sighed. Just because it was hopeful wishful thinking didn’t make it any less wishful thinking.

  She was taking a huge risk. Even with the Elementals’ directly donated energy flowing through her body she was no more powerful a witch than she had been yesterday.

  And no closer to telling the truth.

  She watched Smoke assemble a hamburger.

  “I’ll need you to watch over my body again,” she said.

  “That goes without saying. And for what it’s worth, yes, I know you have to go flying again. I’ve been expecting it. I can’t offer you any advice. This is one of those situations when you have to take dangerous, premeditated risks.”

  “Nasty,” said Rust and everyone glared at him.

  Smoke placed the burger before Amber who regarded it without enthusiasm.

  “What’s wrong with my cooking?” demanded Smoke.

  “Nothing. It’s great. Just perfect. I …”

  “You what?”

  “I … you said there was no one else of the blood after me. What if the monster catches me the same way it got Lucinda and Robyn? Who is going to look for me, us? My brother Jimmy can’t. Mom … can’t. Unless she …”

  “No,” Smoke turned his back on her. “Your mother is out. Permanently. You’ll just have to bring yourself back, Amber. For the sake of the covenant, if nothing else. There is no one left of the blood.”

  “Can I contact one of the governing committee of the WWWRAPC? They’re powerful witches in their own right and …”

  The cousins did not meet her eyes.

  “Should you fail, Amber,” said Smoke after the silence stretched uncomfortably long. “It will no longer be your problem. If the descendants of Molly Greson cannot fulfill the covenant then a new family will be selected. It will be our problem, not yours.”

  Amber pushed her plate away. Food was a particularly repulsive thought right now.

  After a pause Smoke reached past her and pulled the plate back again, then covered her hand with his smaller, strong, calloused hand.

  “Just so you know, Amber. I’d rather, much rather, you survived. You’re a pain in the ass, but you’re our pain. As a favor to me, please come back safe.”

  “That is my plan.”

  She still couldn’t eat.

  First Manny complained that meditating directly after a meal was as bad as going swimming – hadn’t they read that somewhere? Then Lightning said he absolutely had to finish mowing the front lawn before it started to rain and as he didn’t want to miss the ritual, could they wait?

  When Rust suggested that midnight was an aus
picious time to start a soul-flight meditation, Smoke objected, threatening to bind all three of them to the lawn mower and treat them to a dunking in the cedar lake. Instead he escorted Amber to the library.

  While they arranged the candles and pushed couches and chairs away from the center of the stone floor Amber contemplated telling Smoke the truth. That she was beyond inexperienced. She’d gotten onto the Ethereal through sheer luck last time and she … she didn’t want to die.

  “Smoke?”

  He grunted.

  “We need to talk.”

  She rubbed her hands together and tried to arrange the words she needed to say in such a way that Smoke would not yell at her.

  Unfortunately the English language did not contain a single word for the concept of I’m-sorry-don’t-hit-me-I-wish-I-had-a-time-travel-machine-so-you-won’t-be-angry-and-disappointed-do-you-still-love-me?

  “About soul-flight,” she began.

  “Yes.” suspicion made his voice deeper.

  “Yesterday was my first trip.”

  There was a long painful silence during which all of the cousins turned to stare at her as if she were some particularly strange form of insect.

  “What do you mean ‘first trip’?” demanded Smoke.

  “Ah, soul-flight.”

  “Are you serious?” Smoke demanded.

  “Um. Yes.”

  He gaped at her then reached up as high as he could reach to slap her.

  “Yesterday was when you should have told me!” he shouted.

  “I guess.”

  “You guess?”

  Smoke turned away from her and started pacing the floor, alternatively growling and swearing. Amber remained in the center of the room, her hands clenched together, and waited. The storm of words did not pass away quickly . Ten minutes later Smoke was still insulting Amber’s intelligence. Swearing at the ignorance and stupidity of children. He touched briefly on her father’s prejudice against magic before returning to Amber’s self-destructive behavior.

  “You do not invoke fairies then stop making offerings,” he declared. “You have been warned. You do not invoke the Gods of the Santeria and then get bored and go away, and you most definitely do not lie to your magical teacher about your achievements. How stupid can one person be, Amber? If I’d known I would have gotten a protective amulet for you. I would have kept you here, trained you until you were ready. Why? Why did you pretend to be more advanced in the craft than you were?”

  “You couldn’t keep me here, Smoke. Lucinda and Robyn are out there, missing. I would …”

  “Amber, chick.” The anger vanished as quickly as it came. “If I’d known that you’d lied about your achievements, that you weren’t safely bonded to the Elementals, then, much as I love Lucinda and Robyn I would have kept you locked up and safe inside these wards even if it took ten, twenty years to get your training done. I wouldn’t let you out to look for them until you were ready.”

  “Because I’m the last of the daughters?”

  “Because you’d die!” he screamed, then took a deep breath, cleared all expression off his face, and patted her hand. “I kind of like you, Amber, even if you are as dumb as a stump.”

  “Gee, thanks. Don’t you know you’re not supposed to tell kids that they’re dumb?”

  “Your self-esteem is not currently my problem, girl. Your life is.”

  “So I can’t go soul-flight?”

  He sighed and regarded her solemnly.

  “No. Unfortunately, things have changed. You can’t go on with that thing attached to you. I have to assume that the danger the house sensed is real. That spider might be listening, therefore any training you get, it gets. It might be an enemy of …” He glanced around and even though it made no sense, his voice dropped. “Of the farm dwellers. We can’t take that chance.”

  “Okay.”

  “And I don’t like that you were so weak after it latched onto you. We don’t know how long you can survive that burden.”

  “So I have to figure out a way to get it off?”

  “That means you have to go soul-flight to find out more about it.”

  “Oh, joy.”

  Smoke spent the next hour going over the preparation for and procedures of soul-flight. He didn’t bother asking if Amber had consciously connected her awareness to her life-cord before leaving her body last time. He assumed, correctly as it turned out, that she’d forgotten everything and done it all wrong.

  She was nothing if not consistent.

  When they finally dimmed the lights and cast the circle a second time Smoke stated he was confident that Amber was the most dangerously unprepared person ever to voluntarily leave her own body.

  But it couldn’t be helped.

  She had to go.

  It was the coming back that dried the spit in his mouth.

  Smoke was again in his buckskins with bare feet. Amber, in blue jeans, T-shirt with a bull’s-eye on it (a gift from Rust), and bare feet lay on the stone floor. This time at least she knew what it would feel like and what she was supposed to be doing.

  She closed her eyes and instead of chanting and trying to clear her mind she concentrated on what her body was feeling.

  The stone was hard and cold and there was a pointy lump right under her shoulder.

  The air was chill, despite it being summer and her bare feet were starting to hurt.

  She could feel the air-conditioning moving the air through the room and she could feel the relentless tug of that damned filament dragging at her soul.

  She resisted the weight of it, the pull. Smoke warned her that if she let the filament control her soul-flight she’d never learn how to leave her body properly, and that it might just yank her out and eat her whole.

  She winced and opened her eyes, her heart thudding heavily.

  Smoke was still there, relentlessly tinging that little bell. They exchanged a long look, then Smoke nodded to her and she closed her eyes again.

  Connecting to her body was easier than she thought mostly because she was hurt and tired. All she had to do was acknowledge all the aches, pains, and nagging hurts. That done she listened to her own breathing, her own heartbeat, and centered her thoughts on her belly button. Her hand moved from the floor to her belly, pressing down while her mind envisioned the shining silver cord that would bind and anchor her for her journey.

  If it got too thin or it broke then she was dead.

  Important safety tip – don’t let it break.

  Now, finally, she allowed her spirit to lift, to rise up and out.

  Separation felt … odd. Sticky. Clumsy.

  Instead of making the lift into soul-flight easier the filament was resisting. Amber opened her eyes to find herself “seeing” the Ethereal Planes, but half stuck in her own body. The filament was attached … not to her soul but to her … life. Yes, life. It didn’t want her as her soul, but her … she considered the matter. Her energy? Yes. She could see it, thin and hungry, reaching to her heart, her blood, her bones. It was holding her in her body so it could feed on her strength. She tried to lift free again and the filament thickened, tightened, holding her fast.

  Which meant if she wanted to leave …?

  Amber groaned as she extended her attention up into the Ethereal Planes. Air would not be a good choice, no Air in the Ether, no Water either. Not Fire – it was still angry at her. Earth, now that was the best choice. She was, as was all human kind, of Earth. She, her body, currently rested on Earth.

  She reached through her life cord, through her body, and down into the earth beneath and pulled. The energy stirred slowly in response. She directed a small amount of the flow toward the filament and it lengthened. A little more. A little more and with each gulp of power the filament loosened. It was like coaxing a kitten with treats. A bit at a time. Slow and greedy.

  Finally there was more energy being given to it from her spirit than from her body and its grip loosened, lengthened. It followed her, like toilet paper attached to her shoe, out i
nto the Ethereal Planes.

  Amber checked that her life cord was still strong and attached before looking out over the Planes. The strands of the web were still there but seemed weaker, thinner, today. Withered. Amber ran her bodiless fingers beside one of the strands and cried out in shock and pain.

  Each one of the filaments she could see was attached to a different person. All those lines throbbing against the Ether represented a life being drained away.

  So many people. So much life energy. What was this creature and were Lucinda and Robyn part of this web? Were they desperately giving Elemental energy to this creature to survive? And would the creature realize that Amber could connect to Elemental strength giving it more, so much more than an ordinary mortal?

  Uh.

  That was a thought. She cut off the flow from Earth and her spirit clenched as the weight of the web settled on her again.

  So heavy. So demanding. She could barely hear the sound of the bells. She directed her attention down and was relieved to see Smoke patiently marking the seconds.

  Okay.

  She was out of body, tired, and had a job to do. Hanging around in the middle of everything was not helping matters. The sooner she understood what was happening the sooner she could get free.

  And if Lucinda and Robyn were involved in this, given their personalities, they’d be in the middle of it.

  So, Your Honor, that was when I decided to do something incredibly stupid.

  She looked at the web. For the most part the filaments were long, thin, and weak. She searched about, first one direction then another until she saw the web thickening. Just a little.

  Okay.

  Could be right, could be wrong. Make a decision, Amber.

  She followed it.

  Distance on the Ethereal was misleading Amber discovered. Although in the real world Laurenville was just an hour down the road, on the Ethereal it seemed to take awhile to reach it. She wasn’t at all surprised to see the filament she was following touch down at the bookstore. Karl Benn, seated behind his desk in the manager’s office, was definitely part of it.

  She paused to examine him. There was a mass of thin threads entering him, including the one attached to her and a different sort of thread as well … leading away?