Dark Currents: Elementals, Book 1

by Mima

  “Hmmm. I don’t know any Yoruba witches. That’s…Nigeria?”

  “Aye.”

  “So, a random African witch hired another assassin witch to find and kill a random morphi roaming the dreamtime for love of a flood-causing goddess?”

  “That’s the initial story. They only picked the patron up an hour ago. You can follow the developments while I sleep.”

  “I will.” She breathed deeply over the humid scent of her tea, desperately trying to avoid thinking of the coming day.

  “Don’t wander, Xia. Stay near the house.”

  She gave him a sharp look.

  “Please,” he added, but ruined it by saying it with irony.

  “I know how to do my job. I’m very well not going to jaunt into the village to chat with Anne over scones when I’m about to be subsumed.”

  His hand settled over her knee. She froze. Seeing it on her leg made her aware of just how very big he was. “I worry. This is the one time I cannot guard you.”

  She dragged her eyes up his long arm, now clad in a ratty red T-shirt. She met his deep black eyes. “I’ll guard you. I won’t wander.”

  The tiniest shift at the edge of his mouth, and she knew he smiled. “Thank you.”

  They finished breakfast as the morning mist burned away. He dried while she washed, and after he’d draped the dishtowel over the oven handle, he settled back against the counter, legs braced and spread. He held out his hands. “Come.”

  Eyeing him for a moment, Xia considered the fact she hadn’t showered or brushed her teeth. He curled his fingers at her. She came at him with a hesitant sideways step, and another, until his hands closed over hers and drew her close.

  She was between his thighs, thick with muscle in his jeans, and before she had time to warn him of her breath, he’d slid a hand proprietarily into the opening of her robe. His rough palm closed over her breast, pressing it up, gathering its weight and squeezing.

  “Uhhhh—”

  His mouth met hers, and she melted against him. He tasted like orange juice with a hint of bacon. Strong lips, bold tongue, sharp teeth, he kissed her like he owned her, and she shivered, remembering the previous night. She’d pressed him for proof against unquenchable fears and he’d offered her beautiful strength, sex and honesty.

  His hands pulled the robe down, dragging it off her shoulders, trapping her arms.

  She ripped her mouth from his. “No.”

  He froze. His heavy-eyed gaze cleared with caution.

  “I am not, yet again, going to be the one undone while you’re fully dressed.”

  The tiny lip’s-edge smile softened his face as he relaxed. Both of his hands cupped her breasts, thumbs brushing her hard nipples with the edge of his nails. “Undone. I like that.”

  “And I thought you were all about ‘sharing’.”

  “Oh, aye, with my morphi Xia, I’m very…” pinch, “…very…” twist, “…into sharing.” He compressed her nipples in his fingers and actually pulled on her, using them to draw her back to his mouth. He kissed her again, drowned her, soaking her thighs, then pulled away. He stripped his T-shirt off and put her hovering hands on his chest. “There now, share and share alike.”

  His mouth took hers like a tidal wave, carrying her completely away. His hands on her breasts squeezed and plumped in time with his surging kiss. When he finally ceased, she had to think about how to breathe. The big breath she took set her sensitive breasts on fire in his warm, encompassing hands.

  Dazed, she listed against him, hands petting his chest and shoulders mindlessly, feverishly. “What was that?”

  “A good-morning kiss.”

  She laughed weakly. He gathered her into a hug, arms squeezing her, making her feel real. “I’ll rest. You stay calm. If you must think, think about my kiss, my touch, how you want my body to move on yours.”

  She squeezed him back. She needed him to be real.

  Eventually she let him go to bed. Xia meditated but kept being distracted by the sensation of entrapment. She showered, emailed Markos about Gavin, and called her sister.

  “Hola!”

  She sounded happy, and Xia relaxed. “Tony, it’s me.”

  “Sis! How’s your rampart?”

  “He’s…good. Powerful.”

  “Oooooo. That means he’s getting under your skin. Have you done him yet?”

  “None of your beeswax.”

  “Xia, I’m not asking for a play by play, just a generalization. How far?”

  Sighing, Xia put her gaze on her cheerful straw hat hanging by the door. “Far.”

  “Awesome. It’s about time you had someone at your back. This is such a relief.”

  Xia closed her eyes. “Yeah.”

  Silence. “What. What is it?”

  “I’ve been taken out of the dreamtime’s watch. I have a new assignment.”

  “Wonderful! You’ve been there too long. Well, your rampart will go too, right?”

  “Yes. I’m not actually relocating.”

  Silence. “Tell me, Xia.”

  “I’m going to subsume into Terra.”

  Heavy, awful silence.

  “I called to say…” goodbye. “I love you.”

  “No.” Tony’s voice breathed. “You’re one of the best dreamtime workers. They can’t risk you.”

  “Yeah, they can. This is important.”

  “I’ll kill him.”

  “It’s not Markos’s decision. This is coming from the Chamber.”

  “Well, he should be there.”

  “He would if he could. He’s on a different project, and my rampart is going to anchor me.”

  “A stranger.”

  “Not at all.” The denial shocked both women into silence.

  “You knew him before?”

  “No. I mean, I met him when I first got here, but we’d only talked a few times. He’s just…not a stranger. It’s not like that.”

  “Isn’t this the dude who belongs to Aqua?” It was very common to have an anchor be the same element the morphi was going to sink into.

  “He’s old and powerful, and I trust him.”

  “OhmyLady. You’ve finally had your brain scrambled in the dreamtime.”

  “He’s the right anchor for me.”

  “You’re thinking with your crotch and not your head. They’re sending you into Terra because they know Terra knows how to stop her. Giving you an anchor of water is stupid. Hello! If earth knows how to stop water, then a water anchor is fucking useless to a morphi who gets lost in earth.”

  “I won’t—”

  “Don’t tell me you won’t get lost. Don’t pull the wise big-sister thing. You’re not prophetic and you were in therapy for years after that spineless shaman Ry got scared and fucking dropped you.”

  She should never have told her sister the truth of what had happened. Xia truly feared for Ry’s life should he ever cross Antonia’s path. “Adam made me believe in him, Tony. He even went through some training exercises with me. I’m scared, but I know this is the right thing to do. I know nearly every damn morphi in the world is in use stopping Aqua’s rise to consciousness, and I know I’ve done this before and survived. So has Adam. We…talked it out last night, and I feel as confident as I can be.”

  Her sister’s voice was flat with anger, utterly unconvinced. “A raindrop against a rock isn’t going to do a damn thing to carve you free.”

  “I disagree. Last night, he showed me how a raindrop can weave inside a rock and burst it open.” Alternative thinking. “He’ll do right by me, Tony, calm down.”

  Tony sobbed.

  Oh, Lord and Lady and all their stars.

  “Xia. Come back. Please, please, come back. Remember me, and come back.”

  The thick emotion in her sister brought up her own. Whispering, she answered, “I will. If I can, I will.”

  “No ifs. Do it.”

  The dial tone rang in her ear. Xia closed the phone and put it gently down on the table. Bringing her knees up, she wrappe
d her arms around them and buried her face. The tears were right there. Tears of self-pity and fear and denial. She sniffled, fighting to hold them off.

  “Tony is your sister.” His sleepy voice came from behind the couch.

  She held her position. “Yeah.”

  “She fears for you.”

  Sniffle. “Yeah.”

  “But you are strong, Xia, and skilled. You have me. If you come hold me, can you stay awake?”

  She nodded. Following him to the bedroom, he drew her down into his arms. His chest was still bare. She’d noticed before he was utterly smooth, without hair on his jaw or chest…hmmm. Within three breaths, Adam’s body sank heavily against hers, asleep. She held him and believed in them.

  Closing her eyes, she began to meditate. First, she cleared her mind and drew up her power. Second, she drew up her mission. Stop Aqua from waking. Water needed to be turned back. She believed it and was ready to dedicate herself to that. Xia was one of a handful of people who had ghosted with Aqua and come out well. All of them knew how important it was to stop her.

  Then, she began to build a conglomerate memory of herself. She delved into her happiest and her earliest memories, but she also dragged up the darkest, losing her parents. Then she imagined her most humiliating, her most shameful. Moments of cruelty and selfishness she could never take back were studied. She remembered the lovers she’d had—not many for a woman of 116. The pets, the vacations, the professional triumphs. Her favorite foods and places and styles, and how she laughed too loud and too rarely.

  Finally, she reviewed all the people she loved in her life…and included Adam. Forming a mental image of each person and choosing a distinct memory of them warmed her and made her strong. The memory that came for Adam was of the look he gave her when he carried her to bed and spread her robe. That look of awe and need and wonder and pride and triumph.

  Holding all this in her mind while she held Adam in her arms, Xia listened to the echo of her sister’s words. Come back. No ifs. Do it.

  He woke with a stretch when his watch alarm went off. He blinked at her sleepily and smiled that slight, soft smile.

  “What did you do, when you distracted that demon on Skye?” she asked thoughtfully.

  “Masturbated.”

  “That’s what I thought. It was quite a show. Was she an old lover, that demon?”

  “No. But she was an old lover of one of my old lovers. We commiserated together.”

  “Broken heart?” Her stomach knotted.

  “Poor choice.”

  “Ah.” Her stomach relaxed. “So, how did you find me? I knew it was a trap, and I stayed put.”

  “That’s how. When a sexual release is offered on the open ether for everyone, the only person who doesn’t sit up and look is guilty or hiding something. I asked Om to help me look. Bad luck for you to be hiding underneath her.”

  “That’s…a lot of thinking. You are sneaky.”

  “I prefer clever.”

  She smiled at him, her hands playing with the ridges of his ribs.

  He smiled back, that barely there, pleased tilt on his lips. “You seem…well.”

  “I am. I focused. I’m ready…ish.”

  “Ready-ish?”

  “As close as I’m gonna get.”

  His hand smoothed from her crown to her nape. “All right. Then let’s begin.”

  She nodded, trying not to tense as he slid from the bed and put his tee back on. He ate again, while she laid out the ritual materials. She glanced uneasily at the overcast, stormy day. It was still before noon, and intellectually she knew they had many hours. But in her gut she knew that if she wasn’t back by the dreamtime, by sunset, then she’d probably never be back. It was one thing for a morphi to slide and slip around in the dreamtime. It was another to recreate yourself out of an element’s very grasp at that dangerous time of the Four’s greatest potential.

  When she was done, she lay nude in the middle of the bed. The room was dark. No light shone around her curtains, and no cheerful blue Cookie Monster glowed. Adam sat with her feet in his lap. She prayed to the Lord and Lady.

  Then she gestured at her anchor. He took a bit of water and sprinkled it over the specially spelled herbs that smelled sharp and bitter. He then lit a sage smudge with a lighter and lit the herbs on fire with that. The smoke rose, curling, beautiful, and the sharp scent became strong and astringent. He passed her the bowl, just a cereal bowl. She picked up her athame, gripping the silver knife hard in her fist. She was a soldier. She was Xia.

  Licking her lips, she let the black of Adam’s eyes gather round her. He had no words of encouragement or advice. He stared at her, solid, strong. She nodded to him. And closed her eyes. The spell washed over her body like an attack, her skin prickling, shrinking. She forced herself to lie still through the nips and terrible itching. Stretched on the bed, she lay with the smoking bowl in one hand and her weapon in the other, and her feet anchored in flesh and spirit by an elemental.

  “I give myself to Terra.”

  The intent was announced. She breathed deeply of the herbs Markos had sent in his unread letter. Her body was heavy, so heavy, so thick. Adam’s hands on her feet were warm, cupping them loosely.

  “I give myself to Terra.”

  Her ceremonial knife, crafted by her own hands, swished in the air, and her inner psychic power was abruptly lost. It wasn’t floating on the etheric plane. She hadn’t gone inside herself. She’d cut herself loose, dividing most of herself from her real-body. Around her, a new reality began to form. Lush green things grew, moist and airy above, sharp and tight below. They grew around her, into her.

  Distantly and with great effort and focus—I am Xia—she made her real-body mirror her free-self. Together they uttered the words that would send her off. “I give myself to Terra.”

  She couldn’t breathe. Xia let the last connection to her real-body go, and sank. First, it was familiar. Like the dreamtime, she settled onto the surface of Terra, dripped down into crevices, and knew stillness. There was nothing to fear. There was life.

  But then she began to fade. And she knew it. She knew she was losing time, because Terra did not understand time, did not care. Earth moved, always, through space, always. Earth was ground away by air, smoothed away by water, burned away by fire. It didn’t matter because earth could remake itself. Earth could grow new material that settled and compacted and collected and remained. Ever-changing, constantly in motion, earth was eternal.

  Xia hovered on the last precipice. She remembered that the living things still above were precious to her. Aqua was going to take them, swirl them all away like she’d done to Tibor. Xia would help stop it. She wanted to. Xia sank, and communed, and was no more.

  Earth had a heartbeat. It was the pulsing swish of the core of fire it contained, molten earth, the two entwined together. Earth loved fire. It disliked air. For a long time, new-earth drifted, peaceful, unconcerned. Then it encountered something that sparked a thought.

  Water? asked new-earth, following the slow spin of its bigger self.

  Water is, earth answered.

  New-earth didn’t understand that. Love water? It seemed important to understand.

  Water is life, earth intoned, low and deep and so slow, the meaning more of a reverberation, like a gong.

  Love water. New-earth sighed.

  Never, earth warned.

  New-earth questioned without words. It didn’t understand. So important to understand. Important to life, which it loved.

  Earth thought, then earth slept. New-earth waited, because it could do no else. When earth woke, it poked at new-earth.

  Earth? new-earth questioned.

  You are not earth.

  I am new-earth.

  Earth thought.

  New-earth remembered. Never love water?

  Earth thought. Deep, slow, heavy. Water is all.

  Is water life too?

  Water is all. It is itself, and it is us.

  Water is earth?
>
  And fire, and air. Water is.

  The images came at new-earth quickly: molten earth twisting like water, fire flickering like water, air blowing like water.

  New-earth was content. It understood. Water could never be stopped, but it could be changed. There was only one.

  Earth poked new-earth. Go. You are not earth.

  New-earth did not understand.

  You are life. Not yet earth. Go.

  New-earth did not understand.

  Earth went back to sleep. New-earth waited, drifting. Water tickled. That was important. New-earth followed water up, up, up. Water was all. Never love water. Love life. Love…

  Pain and confusion rocked new-earth. Roots stabbed at her, singing of green and sun and air. Seal eyes watched her while he lazed on the stone, waiting. Her…new-earth remembered she was a she. New earth was life. No, new-earth was a she who was alive, above.

  New-earth thought about that. Slow, turning in space, being. New-earth questioned, Who is she? Images came to her.

  By the Lady, Xia, don’t do this. It’s too dangerous. The woman with the short red hair and big brown eyes was loved.

  Our parents died because a greedy, selfish shit of a witch thought he’d rape their blood. A morphi caught him, and I want to be just like him. No, I want to be better than him. I need to do this, Tony. I won’t pick up the trail after the crime, I’ll find the evil before the crime happens. The woman with the long red-brown hair and gray eyes wrapped her arms up tight, the anger pulsing inside, heavy and hot.

  New-earth thought about that strange scene. Life moved so fast it was hard to understand. New-earth thought about loving life, the unfolding, and the withering. Who is she? Another image came to her.

  A man’s hands grabbing her, pulling her from fire’s need. Xia, you will return! She kicked, wanting to dance in the heat, but he forced her and she became herself again.

  Dancing. New-earth knew a bit about dancing, because earth did. Swaying, shifting. New-earth would like to dance.

  A man spun with her, laughing, his brown hair the same shade as hers. Then the man cried as he held her, shaking, while water poured from her lungs. Breathe, Xia, please please breathe. The man angry, stalking from the room, punching the wall. Get out Ry, this isn’t your home anymore. The man looking at her with closed blue eyes, bitter eyes, as bitter as hers with love lost.