Emergence

by Jaliza A. Burwell

  I didn’t need much and so kept little. The only real clutter was the amount of photos and artwork on my walls, though they were still artfully laid out. There was a clear view of my living room, which held two couches with a coffee table between them and two side tables with lamps. No TV, books, or any kind of entertainment. I used my living room often to meet with some of my clients, at least the ones who preferred a more formal meeting. That living room was as formal as I got.

  “What are you doing?” Landus asked as I grabbed a crowbar I kept in the closet and wedged it between two floorboards.

  “Getting the supplies I need.”

  “You keep it in your floor?”

  “Out of sight, out of mind,” I muttered and then used some force to remove a floorboard. I pulled up more boards, revealing a space that could fit a small child. I reached down until I felt the strap of the bag and pulled it up. Another duffel bag containing a completely different set of tools within.

  At first, I was reluctant to keep the bag there or around at all, but I must have somehow knew I would need it again. The bag was small, with only three items inside. Three items that could potentially kill me if I did the ceremony wrong. The one and only time I did the ceremony, I was out of it for a week. After doing it, I had only hours to find the man and kill him before my body forced itself into a coma to heal. I never did it again. It left me too vulnerable. I lucked out by waking up from the coma.

  A shaman had given me the tools and taught me what to do. Afterward, I stashed the bag and didn’t retrieve it until a few months after Cecil found me. Even now I wondered why I didn’t just leave it in the Woodlands. This was magic no one should ever do unless in times of desperation. The risks were too great.

  I opened the bag just to double-check the contents. I pulled out a half-filled vial of black liquid, giving it a quick shake to make sure it was still good.

  “What is that?” Landus asked.

  “Just some mixed herbs to help me.”

  Next was a knife, still sharp, and the last item was a little wooden figurine, hand carved by the very shaman who taught me this spell.

  I put it all back in the bag and stood up.

  “Let’s go.” I didn’t even look at him. Couldn’t. He wanted his shifter back and the mages wanted Maris back, and I was going to do it.

  Maybe I was just a little too crazy.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  I remember a woman running her hands through my hair. Her soft voice told me we were strong and the strong need to protect the weak. I remember nodding in agreement. I was strong and the burden of the weak were being placed on my small shoulders.

  —Nyssa’s Journal

  “Okay, I’m going to give you guys a rundown of what is going to happen because I don’t want anyone ruining it.”

  The group all nodded, focused on me. Landus wasn’t too happy anymore. I thought he finally figured out that this wasn’t as easy as he had hoped it would be.

  “I’m going to drink this.” I held out the vial of black liquid for the shifters and mages to see.

  Twenty of them stood around me. The mages were curious about what I was going to do since this was essentially a spell they—and the witches—didn’t know about. This wasn’t magic though. Magic wouldn’t work for me. This was strictly energy and useless to them

  I sighed at everyone’s close scrutiny. This was a spell that should have stayed in the Woodlands, along with all its other dangerous secrets.

  “This will allow my senses to open up.” I held up a diary that was written by Maris, I could feel all the thoughts and emotions she poured into the thing. “This will help me focus onto Maris’s energy rather than all the other ones.” Then I held up the wooden trinket. “This will allow me to open the gate to her with the help of my blood and my energy.”

  “This doesn’t sound safe,” Landus said.

  I glared at him. “It isn’t. A number of things can go wrong and most of it will turn me into an empty shell. The spell only works because I’m so sensitive to energy. After I drink the potion, my sensitivity will increase dramatically. No matter where she is, I’ll be able to sense her. It helps that I’ve already met her and know what her energy is like because of the gate she made. I won’t have to strain myself too hard unlike if I tried to find Heaven instead. I’m pushing myself past the capabilities of my body and that can kill me or destroy my mind.”

  “You’ve done this before?” Aaron asked.

  “I have. It put me in a coma for a week.”

  “Maybe you shouldn’t do this then,” Landus said, his eyes a dark blade of stubbornness.

  “Too damn late. You want to find your cub and this is how we do it. Unless you want to wait for days while the witches search. Even then, there is still a good chance they won’t find her in time. Not if they are going up against Baron.”

  “I didn’t know.”

  “Now you do.” I turned back to the rest of the group. “When I find her, I will push out my energy to lock onto her and create a path. The gate will form then. The gate will last until I pass out, which I most definitely will do, so we only have a matter of hours. It won’t lead right to her, but within about a mile radius. I’ll come through with you guys to lead you to her.”

  “No, you’ll stay here.”

  “Are you seriously wasting time arguing right now?” I snapped at Landus. “I am going. Get over it.”

  “You won’t be in a position to go through.”

  I smirked. “I will. I’ll be completely fine until I’ve reached the limit of my energy. Since it is my energy feeding the gate, when I run out, the gate goes down. We need to go in, find them, and get the hell back out before that. I will be able to quicken the search instead of having you guys stumbling around, clueless.”

  “We are shifters, we can hunt on our own.”

  “Against Baron, you can’t. You can bet your ass he’s prepared for you guys to show up. He will have traps set, roadblocks to slow you down, and he will have masked them so you can’t just sniff them out.”

  Landus’s mouth snapped shut, and I nearly sighed with relief. I also really wanted to go out of curiosity. If I was putting myself at risk, the least they could do was let me fulfill my curiosity. And there was no way in hell I was missing a shot at taking Baron down, especially if this was our only chance. If I failed and went into a coma for a week, I could wake up with Cecil dead. I was hoping the strong connection I had with Maris was going to keep me from being out for so long. I couldn’t wake up to Cecil gone.

  So why the hell was I doing this?

  I glanced at all the faces of the mages and shifters, seeing their hope and fear. Their anxiety filled the air with a bitter taste. For them. I was doing this for them.

  “Now, give me some space,” I said, looking down at the ground, not wanting to look at them anymore.

  They all backed up. Slade had to pull Landus back before he decided to steal my shit just to stop me from performing the spell. He seemed like the type to do it.

  I stood in the middle of the small clearing, the wind whistling through the trees softly, bringing with it the scent of life. Closing my eyes, I opened the bottle, and downed the bitter liquid in one shot. Then I slashed the knife across my wrist, ignoring the sting as a few drops fell onto the diary I had placed on the ground.

  I whispered words long forgotten by the beings in a language very few knew. I didn’t even know all of the language, just enough to cast the spells that I wanted. The sounds the words made tumbled from my mouth, kicking up the energy around me. My pores opened up, releasing a rush of energy, stirring the air around me.

  Slowly I came online, feeling everyone and everything, starting with those close to me and then spanning out to the critters and beings in the forest, then around the city, and eventually, so far and wide, my head felt like it wanted to explode.

  I bent down like things hurt in my body and picked up the diary with one hand. In my other hand, I gripped the talisman. More words fl
owed out of me, and I swallowed a scream as my energy focused in one direction, locking on a weak but beating energy. I tugged on it, merged with it, and with my eyes closed, felt the gate as it formed. I opened my eyes, impressed with myself. The gate was about eight feet tall and four feet wide with a wooden looking archway. The inside was a silvery blue with swirls of green inside. Heat radiated off of it.

  Those around me took in a deep breath, surprised by what they saw. Even after I explained to them about what was going to happen, they were still shocked. I guessed seeing was believing and all that jazz in this case.

  “Now we go through,” I said.

  The gate had enough room for two people to squeeze through at a time. I grabbed onto Landus and tugged him as I went through the gate. My skin wanted to feel like it was burning but the hot touch was actually gentle and accepting.

  When we stepped through, the air was thick with what could only have been the smell of sewage water. I wanted to hold my breath. Some people around me were gagging and covering their noses.

  “Is this the sewer?” Aaron asked, stepping up next to me to take in the sewage water, the rats, the garbage, and the graffiti on the one walkway located down here.

  “We’re below the city,” I said, checking my phone

  Definitely still in my part of the world. I had service and the time matched what it was before we stepped through. I glanced at the walls, recognizing the tags from local gangs. “Hell, this is the best deterrent to keep people away.”

  “Which way?” Landus asked.

  I pointed to the left. “There are some tunnels connected to the sewage system. If we go that way, we should find one. I’m sure we will find her in one of them.

  “How do you know?” Landus asked.

  I shrugged. “I came down here once or twice for work.”

  They followed as I trailed Maris’s energy signature.

  “You seem to know this area really well.”

  “Crappy assignments do exist. Two years ago, I helped the Corps track down a hopper. The hopper made these one-way gates that popped up quickly and disappeared just as fast. They didn’t bring him far because those types of gates are weak. My sensitivity had the Corps knocking at my door. The hopper decided to take a tour through the sewers, and I was on his tail the whole damn time with some very pissed off Corps.”

  The Corps were a branch of the police department who dealt with any situations dealing with magic or energy. They were trained to deal with all kinds of situations. Or at least most situations. The force was made up of beings rather than humans.

  “Sounds like a fun time,” Aaron said. He was still looking around, a cloth wrapped around his mouth and nose to block out some of the stench. He was a curious one. Even now, I could feel the hum of his energy, his excitement of doing something new and, for him, adventurous.

  “Oh yeah, real great. I fought with the guy, even rolled around in the sewage while the other men placed bets on who would win. Gave them all a great, disgusting show.”

  We veered off to the right, and I paused in front of a huge metal door.

  “Well, this is definitely new.” I reached out slowly and touched the door gently, feeling its energy, and underneath that, a layer of magic. Baron was trying hard to keep his kidnappees hidden. What the hell did he want with them?

  “Do you know where it leads?” Landus asked, stepping up next to me. Did he feel the energy like I did? “Feels like there’s a spell, maybe an alarm.”

  “Or maybe it’s to fry us the moment we bust through the door?”

  “That too.”

  “Wait,” Aaron came forward. “Could it really do that? Make us toast if we try to pass?”

  Landus just shrugged, lifting his wide shoulders up and then lowering them in a dismissive, I couldn’t care less kind of movement.

  “I’m better with energy and magic is not my forte. It is yours though,” I said, grabbing Aaron’s arm.

  I lifted his hand up and slapping it onto the wall. He flinched, probably thinking the spell was going to be triggered and then blow up on us. Setting up a sensitive spell like that would be a dumb idea considering this place was infested with rats and the door would blow up from them rubbing up against it. No. Baron wasn’t dumb. He would ensure it wasn’t rats making friends with his door but people trying to open it without permission.

  That was if this were a trap.

  “Can you sense it?” I asked.

  Aaron tilted his head as if trying to hear whatever it was he felt. After a few moments, he nodded. “A simple alarm.”

  “Can you get rid of it without him knowing?”

  He shook his head. “Not really my thing. I’m more of a blast through kind of mage.”

  I patted his back and smiled. “And I like you even more for it.”

  Landus glared at us, his impatience and some other emotion making his energy a little erratic. I ignored him and turned to our group.

  “Anyone able to turn off the alarm spell?”

  A man about the same height as me stepped forward. His skin was dark, his dark hair brushing against his shoulders. He had a softness in his expression from lack of survival experience. He never put himself in the kind of dangers I was used to facing on a daily basis.

  “I can.”

  We stepped back to give him room. He reached up and kept his hand inches from the steel door.

  I didn’t sense magic like I did energy but I could still feel his despite the... delicateness. He used it subtly, working away slowly at the spell on the door with a very gentle touch. I was a bulldozer. Slade too. So was Landus and apparently Aaron as well. Being surrounded by bulldozers made it a little off-putting to feel the mage do his magic. He was patient and efficient. I could feel the layers of the spell slowly stripped down, layer by layer.

  I finally learned what made, say, a neurosurgeon different from a medic. I watched his brown eyes where most of the action took place. The miniscule changes in his eyes showed me that everything was going well, despite some bumps and bruises.

  After minutes ticked by, he lowered his hands and stepped back with a relieved sigh.

  “Done.”

  He glanced up at me, and I was still staring at him. He frowned, confused and uncomfortable. I slowly smiled and he took a step away from me.

  “Good job,” I said.

  “Yeah. Good job, Marshal.” Aaron patted the man on his back, looking all proud. The man smiled at him, pleased with his own achievements. I felt like I was missing something but ignored it. Problem solved, time to move on.

  I nodded at Landus, who slowly opened the door. The door creaked and he paused, glaring at the hinges for daring to make a noise.

  Well played, Baron. He really did think of everything. The door was new so he purposely made it so the hinges would let him know every time the door was used if he or the guards were on the other side.

  “Let me slip through. If there are no guards on the other side, I’ll let you know. If there are, I’ll take care of them.”

  After a few moments of consideration, he nodded. We really didn’t need guards sounding an alarm.

  The door was opened just enough for me to squeeze through. On the other side was an open room. A man dozed off next to the other door, a gun at his side. I silently moved up behind him, gripped his neck, and twisted before he even had a chance to wake up. The snap was loud as it bounced off the walls. I lowered him down onto the ground and went back to the door.

  “Clear.”

  They finished opening the door, the creaking loud. If Landus didn’t stop when he did, we would have woken the lazy-ass up.

  Everyone came in slowly, taking in the huge empty room and the dead body off to the side. I went toward what looked like a hallway that branched out from the side of the room. Landus, Slade, and Aaron stayed on my heels.

  We came to another door, wooden this time.

  “Shit,” Aaron swore. He rubbed at his arms as if trying to wipe off bugs that were crawling all over him
.

  “What?” I asked.

  “You don’t feel that?”

  I tried to feel what he felt. The magic was heavy but the energy levels were fine.

  “Someone is casting a spell, a big one by the feeling of it.”

  A female scream tore through the room, coming from behind the door. The sound was nothing but pure pain and enough to drive Landus to his breaking point. He shoved past me and kicked down the door with power I had yet to see come from him, though I suspected he’d had. He proved me right as the door flew a few feet before sliding across the floor.

  He ran into the room and we piled in behind him, getting to work. The shifters branched off, getting up close and personal while the mages stayed back to cast their magic. Landus barreled forward towards Baron and the female who was strapped to a table. I stayed right behind him, taking in the scene in seconds.

  Torches were set up around the room and the floor was designed with white lines that looked like paint or chalk. A cage with Maris and another female sat off to the side, outside of the circle. The one who screamed was tied to a heavy-duty steel table with Baron overhead, holding a bloody knife.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  I remember moving. Ducking, diving, kicking, lashing out. I remember being surrounded and just letting myself go. I was going to win. I always won.

  —Nyssa’s Journal

  We had just walked into a fricken ceremony and by Baron’s expression he wasn’t expecting us. He thought he had more time to at least finish this little ritual of his.

  A group blocked off Landus, and he went to work at tearing them apart. I watched his back, taking down a couple of baddies who decided I was fair game and came at me. They never had a chance.

  Baron had numbers but they were all weak.

  Finally, the path cleared, but then Landus smacked into something that repelled him and pushed him into me.

  He growled and charged again, only to be shoved back by the protective spell. I moved to the side so he didn’t take me down with him.