By Dark

by T Thorn Coyle

  Alejandro Guillermo felt Alejandro Juan stir inside him.

  ::What shall we do?:: He wasn’t sure who he was asking. Which of his selves. Or Tish?

  ::Do as the lady says, and take these pendejos down. Ruin them and sever their ties to earth so they cannot make this evil magic again. Salt the earth on which they stand. Let nothing root or grow.::

  He felt the rightness of the words, and felt assent from Tish.

  Okay. They knew what they were going to do. Now they just needed to figure out how.

  50

  Shekinah

  “Ra Ma Da Sa Sa Say So Hung!”

  * * *

  Her prayers were full-throated now, unfettered. Her voice was strong with the power of He Who Danced in Love and War. The mirror winked and flashed with light.

  It was all going to be all right. She could feel it now. Every cluster of the room played its part, and each part worked with the larger whole. She could also feel the force they were arrayed against. The old magic blended with the new. A magic of force and suppression, a magic of oppression and control. A magic that had been seeded thousands of years before and was coming to fruition in this time.

  It had needed twin serpents of its own to come together, binding and unbinding.

  “Ra Ma Da Sa Sa Say So Hung…” The Sun and the Moon twined with the Infinite, sending healing to those who were in need.

  Weaving in and around her chanting, other prayers rose and fell and rose again, forming a palpable web of power.

  She saw six-pointed stars. Five-pointed stars. Flashes of light. Ambition and greed. And moving among it all, were twin powers. Earth and air. Past and future. Love and war. The power of each ebbed and flowed. But somehow, somewhere, truth showed its face in all. The Infinite rang true, beyond time.

  “Ra Ma Da Sa Sa Say So Hung!” Shekinah screamed out the words. Sweat ran down her face. The mirror shone. Her arm was raised, hand in the mudrā of truth. She was dimly aware of physical pain. It didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered was that she pray.

  In front of her, two dark eyes floated. Yogi Basu. She faltered for seconds, dropping the chant. How?

  Around his dark, all-knowing eyes, his face formed. Her left hand dropped, then reached. His mouth. The gray and brown beard around it. So real.

  His lips formed shapes. Words.

  Sat Nam. The kundalini rocketed upward. The mirror dropped from her hands. Her whole body tensed in a rictus, a circuit about to blow.

  “Shekinah! Breathe! Then let it go. Don’t try to hold on!” Whose voice was that? Brenda’s?

  And her head burst open with a shaft of light. Her tongue spoke words without form. Her arms whirled, spinning worlds into and out of existence.

  Shekinah was light. She was truth. She was Lord Shiva, walking now on earth.

  51

  Alejandro

  A low rumble filled the astral plane. If Alejandro hadn’t been braced against Tish’s back, his stumble would have been a fall. The clattering teeth of the cops snapped, and blood flowed down their chins. The Chief of Police—who was and was not Sheriff Carlson—rose into the air, arms outstretched, turning slowly, hands conjuring.

  But the rumbling wasn’t coming from there. It came from elsewhere. From Past? No. And here they were in Future. So it must be…

  He felt the coven and everyone else gathered. Saw the sigils cycling past, framing the edges of the circle. EYES ON YOU. STRONGER TOGETHER. EYES ON YOU. STRONGER TOGETHER.

  And there was the source of the astral shaking seismic roar that built and built in power. Shekinah. In the present. But not on earth. He caught the image of her, multi-armed, brandishing weapons, fierce grin on her face.

  Who the fuck?

  ::Shiiiiivvvvaaaaaaaa!:: Tish roared the name of power. It cracked across the astral plane. ::Om! Namah! Shivaya!::

  Sheriff Carlson’s head snapped back as if he’d been punched full force with a massive uppercut.

  Tish’s sword flamed higher, and she rose into the air, heading straight for Carlson, Police Chief. Alejandro’s vision snapped in and out, plane to plane, past, present, future, past.

  There was the back room of the Inner Eye. There was the raging bonfire and the horsemen dressed in badly tanned hides. There was Tish’s brother, rising up from a puddle of blood on the sidewalk, looking dazed. He held out one hand, pointing to the star on Carlson’s chest. Help, he mouthed.

  ::Tish! Watch out!::

  Alejandro kicked off and rose into the gray. She needed backup and she needed it now.

  52

  Shekinah

  All must fall before her. Him. Her. Him. All must face the truth about their lives. All must face the moment of reckoning.

  All must know how worlds were born and died.

  All must know who He was. Dancer of the Worlds. Lord of Light and Fire. Warrior at dawn and lover at dusk. Married to the beautiful, dark-as-night face of Time Herself.

  He danced the beginning and the end.

  53

  Alejandro

  He hurtled toward Tish and the Chief of Police, wand and athame both held straight out as if he could pierce Sheriff Carlson’s heart. Tish and Carlson faced off. She swiped at him, flames leaping, with the Sword of Truth.

  ::And the truth shall set us free:: Alejandro sent the thought.

  Inside his head, he heard Tish laugh. A hair-raising, terrifying sound. More terrifying than the clattering of teeth from the mute cops down below.

  ::I can’t do this, Alejandro.::

  ::Yes you can!::

  ::No. Not what I mean. This is your job. Your destiny. Not mine.::

  A burst of anger cracked through his astral form like lightning, filling him with fierce, unwavering, uncompromising Truth.

  Fuck.

  He knew what he had to do. Alejandro Juan knew. Alejandro Guillermo knew. This was his fucking crisis. The thing about himself he had not wanted to face. The thing he’d fled.

  Time caught up with him, and grabbed him by the throat, and time said Motherfucker. Tell. The. Truth.

  Weeping and moaning, Alejandro skinned his lips back from his teeth and sent a cry through every plane. Through future, past, and present. With the power of his coven and their Gods, and with the strength Shekinah channeled to him in a steady stream.

  He caught it in his tools: athame and wand both blazed with heat and light. Blue fire and goldenrod. Sulfur and gold. There was no alchemy that was not his to wield in this time. Right now.

  He snapped forward, aiming both his tools at Carlson’s neck. The full force of Truth blazed from his tools. He shoved it down the man’s throat, until he gagged, struggling, fighting it. Alejandro held his blade at the man’s belly and shoved his wand as far down Carlson’s throat as it would go.

  ::Tish! Now!::

  ::What?::

  ::Cut the fucking cords from the egregore to its power source! Those police! Doing magic!::

  A stink billowed out from Carlson as the Truth ate him alive, inside out. It smelled like burnt hair and blood, and the sick miasma of lifetimes of lies. Alejandro forced every channel in his own astral body open as wide as they would go, letting the full force of the coven and the power of Truth blast through.

  The molecules making up his ætheric body felt as if they were being torn apart, the spaces between them shoved wide by the sheer force of the magic pouring through him, setting his nerve endings on fire.

  He might not survive this, but if he had to die, in this life and all further lives? He’d make sure Carlson did the same.

  ::NO MERCY!:: he growled as Carlson, eyes rolled back in his head, batted at his arms, struggling, even as the Truth ripped him apart.

  ::ALL MERCY!:: Tish screamed into the widening void. Lifted her flaming sword. And cut.

  Carlson caved in like an imploding star, then exploded out with a massive whoomf like a propane tank on fire. Alejandro flew backward, desperately clutching his wand and blade.

  54

  Shekinah

/>   She fell to the carpet, sobbing. Shiva had left her. Shiva had set her free.

  “Shekinah!”

  “Alejandro!”

  Voices. Bustling. Hands. The scents of rose water and lavender.

  “Open your mouth.” The taste of bitter herbs. Then calm.

  55

  Alejandro

  The familiar sounds and scents of coven. He coughed and rolled onto his side. His head pounded and his body felt as if he’d just been in a war.

  “You’re going to be okay.” Raquel’s voice.

  “Tish? Shekinah?”

  “They’re both fine.”

  He blinked and pain stabbed through his head. Raquel’s face was above him, and he could see Tobias hovering to the side.

  “Open your mouth,” Tobias said.

  He complied, and bitter herbs dropped on his tongue.

  “Gah. Can’t you make that taste any better?”

  Tobias grinned. “Then how would you know it worked?”

  “Help me up?”

  With Raquel and Tobias’s help, he managed to sit upright. Tish was still laid out, flat on the ground, with Tempest and Brenda tending to her. And Shekinah…

  His beautiful love was sitting, with Moss at her back and Selene holding her feet. She looked at him and smiled. He mouthed “I love you” at her. She smiled, and mouthed the words back.

  Then Thomas was at this side.

  “You scared the shit out of me, asshole,” the younger man said.

  “Yeah,” Alejandro replied. “But we did some real magic, didn’t we?”

  And despite the unsettling nature of that magic, he had to admit…

  It felt pretty damn good.

  56

  Shekinah

  Shekinah lay in Alejandro’s bed, arms wrapped around her lover, listening to him sleep. They’d forgotten to pull the blackout curtains over the privacy sheers the night before, so early morning sunlight filtered through the thin, white curtains. It was going to be a beautiful autumn day.

  It was two days after what his coven was already calling “The Ritual of All Time,” which had several layers of meaning, of course. She knew that at least some of them hoped that title was an invocation that the intense ritual stuff they’d been dealing with for the past year was done.

  The kundalini serpents gently twined up her spine. She breathed in for four counts. Out for four. In for four counts. Out for four. Lord Shiva still buzzed around her head, and the impression she got from that energy was that, though the ritual had done a lot to break the spell of corruption that still held Portland in its sway, the coven’s work wasn’t done.

  And neither was her own.

  After the ritual, pretty much everyone involved had collapsed, cared for by the healers among them. The anarchists had seemed excited rather than scared out of their heads, which Shekinah found very interesting. Arrow and Crescent really was something, the way they brought disparate groups together. It was a rare thing that anything united people in that way.

  She looked forward to getting to know the Thelemites, heathens, and anarchists better. The whole thing had made her realize how sequestered she’d allowed herself to become. And Yogi Basu agreed.

  They’d met the night before, to debrief. He’d seemed unsurprised at what had transpired.

  “Of course, Lord Shiva came to you in your hour of need. You think he only lives in the holy books? Now. When will you be ready to start your teacher training?”

  Alejandro’s breathing changed. She looked down to see a yawn split his beautiful face wide. He’d slept for fourteen hours after the healers had helped her get him home, and had barely stirred since then, except to shower and eat.

  And make love to her.

  “Hey, love. You finally awake?”

  He stretched his arms and she felt him point his toes beneath the comforter. He blinked up at her.

  “You know, I think I am. I feel pretty good.” He snuggled up higher onto her shoulder, and they lay and breathed together for a while, listening to the distant sounds of the city down below.

  “Think you might want to make it outside today?”

  “Only if you make hot, naked love to me again.”

  She laughed and kissed the top of his head. “I think that could be arranged, and since we’re both naked right now, it’s even convenient.”

  He stroked her belly, hand warm and delicious.

  “You still okay about all this?”

  She laughed. “‘All this’? You mean, getting taken over by Lord Shiva in the middle of some weird astral ritual with a bunch of witches and anarchists—not to mention my lover’s possible new boyfriend—in which the love of my life could have died from magical backlash? Is that the ‘all this’ you’re talking about?”

  He scooted all the way up, grabbed a pillow, and leaned against the gray padded headboard next to her. His dark eyes, so playful just a few minutes ago, were serious.

  “Yes. All of that. Every bit of it. Plus the fact that you’re going to actually start teacher training next week.”

  “There are things I need to deal with, that’s for sure. I feel like my life has been turned up to eleven. But you know…”

  She thought about it. Felt it. Felt Lord Shiva. Felt her teacher. Felt the serpents. Felt her lover.

  Felt her power.

  “It’s funny,” she said. “Here we thought you were the one having a midlife crisis. But it turns out, I was having one, too. I just had no idea.”

  “And?”

  “And yeah. I’m okay with it. With every last bit.”

  Shekinah had no idea what tomorrow would bring, but she now knew that, no matter what it was, she was going to be just fine. Better than fine.

  She was going to kick ass.

  57

  Alejandro

  He had never loved anyone in his life the way he loved Shekinah right now, and he had loved a lot of people. She sat next to him, blond hair shining in the dappled morning light, face bare, the most beautiful sight he’d ever seen.

  “You’re one of the bravest people I know.”

  He felt her shrug. “I don’t know about that, but I feel really strong right now. Not questioning myself anymore, you know? How about you?”

  He grabbed the steel water bottle from the side table and took a swig, swishing it around his mouth. He still got weird aftertastes from the astral battle. Raquel said they were some sort of psychic cellular memory, and the taste would fade as he integrated the working.

  “Other than wanting coffee, I feel pretty good. And yeah, I think I’m ready for whatever is coming now. It came to me in the night, actually.”

  “What?” she said, slipping out of bed and grabbing one of his T-shirts to shuck on over her head.

  “Why are you getting dressed?”

  She stood, long legs bare, wicked smile on her face. “You said you wanted coffee, didn’t you? Well, the coffee’s not going to make itself. I promise we’ll get naked again after.”

  “You really are the best, you know that?” He slipped out of bed himself, pulling on a pair of dark gray sweatpants. They padded companionably to the kitchen space. As Shekinah got the coffee started, he wandered over to the ofrenda. It felt quiet this morning, no longer buzzing with frantic activity and the desperate need to communicate through the thickness of his skull. Come to think of it, the base of his skull felt quiet, too. Tobias had traced some sort of oil at the place where his skull met the top of his spine. He said it would help gently close things down until Alejandro had enough oomph to recalibrate himself again.

  “You haven’t finished your sentence yet,” Shekinah said from beside him. “What came to you in the night?”

  The scent of coffee perking filled the room, and his stomach growled. He snaked an arm around her and ignored his stomach. “I’m not going back into corporate IT. I’ve already got more money than I know what to do with, and minimal expenses.”

  “So, what are you going to do?” She leaned against his side and the
y stood, staring at the ofrenda together.

  “Not one-hundred-percent sure yet, but I’m sure there are community groups that could use some cheap consulting. And maybe I’ll do more with Olivia and the rest of that hacker crew. Do a lot more subversive good than I have been. I’m tired of playing life safe, you know.”

  Shekinah turned his face, lips meeting his. Goddess, she felt good. He turned in her arms, drawing her closer. They paused for breath, foreheads touching. They breathed together, long and slow, savoring the energy that thrummed between them.

  “Which reminds me of something I’ve been thinking of,” Shekinah finally said. “What do you think about getting a little house together? We could have separate bedrooms if we wanted, and we’d both need office space, but…”

  “Huh.” He turned the thought over in his heart and mind, and found he wasn’t afraid of that anymore, either. “How about when Maureen wants to come over? Or Thomas?” He really wanted to spend a lot more time with Thomas. “Or anyone else?”

  “Well, the separate bedrooms might be enough…but I was also thinking, we could build a little guest house in the back…for visitors.”

  He grinned at her. She grinned right back.

  “You’re talking about a sex shack, aren’t you?”

  “What else?”

  It was his turn to grab her in a kiss. Fuck the coffee, he wanted her. Now.

  But before they dragged each other back to the bedroom…