In response, Billy leered. “Screw you, bi…”
Galmadriel gestured and with the flick of a finger, set a ring—a prison—of white light to surround the still twitching form before turning back to the group of women.
“He has made his choice. Shall we begin?”
_,.-'~'-.,_
Zack spun the wheel, gunned the engine, and accelerated into the final curve. “Hang on, almost there.” He spoke not only to the other three men in the car with him but also to his sister and to Kat.
Fear twanged at nerves taut as guitar strings while his intuition screamed, “Danger.” When he got hold of them, all four women were going to answer to him for their part in what he knew was happening at this very minute.
He’d given in to the idea that the women would become the focus of this little supernatural sting but not that it would happen with none of the men present. Worse, Gustavia had lied so smoothly she’d skimmed right past his defenses.
“Take Finn out and get to know him. He’s going to be part of the family soon. Maybe Tyler and Reid would like to go along. Play some pool.”
So he’d gone, and look what happened the minute his back was turned.
Mixed with anger and fear, chagrin at being duped reddened his face and fed the glut of emotions. Foot jammed on the brake; he skidded the cruiser into place, shoved it into park and was out the door almost before it came to a complete stop.
Tyler, Finn, and Reid right behind him, Zack rounded the corner of the house and bolted toward the source of the light, his heart beating so hard it sounded like a metronome.
What he saw when he got there stopped him in his tracks. A huge dome of light, generated by the angel’s outstretched arms arched across the flat lawn still covered with dead winter grass. From her eyes, twin beams of light converged into one shaft of pure white that grew to encompass the man Zack had been hunting for all these months.
In the center of the circle, Logan lay, pinned by that light. He was surrounded by the four women he had come to protect and it looked like they didn’t need him at all.
Zack felt the tingling sensation when every hair on his body lifted and stood on end as though touched by static electricity, felt a hum start to vibrate at the back of his throat. He swallowed heavily and chanced a look his future brother-in-law only to see the same grim expression on Finn’s face that he was sure was pasted on his own.
The air around him crackled and sparked as the sharp tang of ozone flared his nostrils. Logan snarled, Billy’s face superimposed over his own, gathered the darkness to pit it against the light. Inky blackness formed closely around him. It was enough to let him start to pull himself up from the ground. Slowly, head bowed with the effort, Billy raised Logan’s body to its knees.
Zack knew he had to do something to help but he only managed one step forward before Galmadriel’s sharply barked, “No,” stopped him. She spared him little more than a glance but Zack had no choice other than to obey when the angel spoke directly into his mind, “This is not for you.”
Billy sneered and spoke, “Not much of an angel, are you? Getting a bunch of women,” the word was spoken as an epithet, “to do your dirty work.”
“Want me to kick him in the danglies again?” Gustavia asked. Galmadriel spared her a smile, barely a quirk of the lips.
“Not much of a specter are you?” Kat allowed scorn to color her words, Billy was more likely to lose his hold on Logan if he lost control of his emotions. “Getting a mortal to do your dirty work. I guess you didn’t have it in you to go up against an angel and a bunch of women on your own.”
Goading Billy might make him withdraw from the not-quite-innocent man whose body he now controlled. “But then, you’ve always been a coward, haven’t you? A sneak, a cheat, and a liar. You will not win. Your kind never does.” The words spat like knives—aimed at his ego—slapped at his control, pushing Billy past the edge of anger. They needed him off balance and he was heading there fast.
_,.-'~'-.,_
Once they had Billy distracted, the real work could begin.
For Galmadriel’s plan to work, each woman needed to have a strong reason to help Logan. Considering his actions, both before and after Billy had taken him over, finding that desire was a challenge.
The blackness in his heart had been the very thing that had created enough fertile ground for the earthwalker to plant his seeds. Having an ancestral connection to Billy just made his hold over Logan all the stronger.
To get herself into that mindset, Julie cast her memory back to the early days of their relationship. She found it difficult since the past was now colored by the knowledge that he had cold-bloodedly selected her as an easy target, a mark. For that and for everything he had done to hurt her since, forgiveness seemed impossible.
“Even the most hardened criminal can earn redemption. There were times when he showed you the spark of his truest self. Find that spark and use it.” Galmadriel’s words evoked a slide show of memories that flowed with enhanced clarity through Julie’s mind.
There had been a moment on their third date when he had gone quiet, serious. Maybe it had been a ploy; maybe it had been a genuine emotion when he had said to her, “I don’t deserve to be involved with someone like you.”
At the time, she had found his self-deprecation flattering but in hindsight, she knew he had, at that moment, spoken truth and that the regret in his eyes had been real.
Clinging to that memory, Julie allowed herself to fill up with the desire to nurture the tarnished pieces of his soul into something bright and shining. Golden light filled her inside, then spread from her to mingle with the purity of Galmadriel’s brilliant whiteness and arrowed toward Logan.
The biggest surprise came when she felt an answering glimmer. He was still in there somewhere. She poured everything into helping the man she had once known so he could push back against the force inside him.
Even swallowed up by the earthwalker, Julie was aware when Logan responded with gratitude.
Billy shrieked his rage, an inhuman sound that produced the same reaction as nails on a chalkboard—a house-sized chalkboard and the nails of dragon.
Gustavia had no good memories of the man; she had known from day one that his intentions were hurtful even if she had not been able to make Julie believe. He could burn in hell for all she cared.
Yet, at Galmadriel’s suggestion, she remembered how in the one moment he had come back to himself, he had shown remorse for kidnapping her and then he had asked her for help. The innate generosity of her nature would not deny the most basic of human emotions. Sympathy.
Under the intensity of the angel’s gaze, Gustavia rolled her eyes and found enough compassion to bring forth her own light. Blue as a robin’s egg, clear as the sky, it sparkled toward the man who had hurt her as she tossed a thought toward Galmadriel, “I better get huge karma points for this.”
For Amethyst, the process was easier. Regardless of the pain he had caused, Logan had been directly responsible for the circumstances that led to her embracing the highest level of her own ability. If for no other reason than the elevated desire to help that came along with being a true reader, she found her light. Appropriately colored, violet and deeply intense, it flared through her and into the mix.
Logan’s body shuddered and bucked as Billy’s darkness swelled briefly.
Kat needed no prompting. Channeling Estelle that first time, the ghost had not asked permission so Kat knew the terror that came with losing control. Whatever Logan had done, Billy’s intentions were far worse. Let Zack and the legal system handle Logan’s well-deserved punishment, Billy would answer to a higher court. She dropped her shield and added the brilliant green of new summer grass to the light flowing into the center of the circle.
“By our light, we anchor this man to the earth and bind the darkness.”
_,.-'~'-.,_
Outside the circle of light, a funnel of wind began to turn and grow around the women as if they were pulling energy from
the very air. Dead leaves, grass, and twigs rose to whirl into the deepening twilight to be eaten by the frenetic rush of air and energy.
“It’s not going to be enough. Look.” Zack pointed. Instead of pulling the darkness from Logan’s body, the shaft of light was being absorbed slowly by the earthwalker. He felt Galmadriel’s attention leave him as she focused more and more of it on channeling the light into the growing void.
“What do we do?” Reid asked.
“We helped Amethyst increase her power just by touching her when she was searching for Gustavia, maybe the same thing would work now.” Tyler shouted over the howling wind. If they waited much longer, it would be impossible to get through that barrier.
“It’s worth a shot. Let’s go.” The four men turned to fight their way toward the women who stood, untouched by the maelstrom around them.
Spreading out around the dome of light, each man stepped into the flying debris pitched by the raging wind. They felt its force pulling at them with a hunger that was almost sentient.
Zack quickly realized how much damage a twig could do at high speed when one whizzed across his earlobe then continued on its path with a bit of his skin attached. Bent nearly double, he yanked his coat over his head and leaned harder into the battle but made no headway as the wind stole his breath, tried to force itself into his pores.
A glance told him the others were faring no better so he motioned them to pull back, to gather away from the mini tornado.
“Waited too long. It’s too strong,” he gasped with depleted breath.
“Then we work with it.”
“How do you mean?” Reid asked.
Finn had a plan. “Don’t try to cut across. Put the wind to your back and run with the flow, work your way around the circle toward the middle.”
Tyler nodded. “We need to go now, it’s getting stronger.”
Zack sprinted into the gathering storm but this time he let the wind push him around the circle as he slowly angled his way toward the center. When he finally dropped out the other side, he saw the plan had worked.
Everyone had made it through. They stood as a group between the dome of light and the howling storm.
He circled a hand to indicate they should all spread out around the circle of women. None of them knew whether they could pass the barrier of light but when Zack gave the signal, without hesitation, they all stepped into air chilled by the reaction of two opposing forces and by the entity contained at the center.
Chapter 20
Billy, the earthwalker, felt the balance shift. He was winning, all he needed to do was hold out a little longer and those pathetic women would be too tired to fight any more. That knowledge lent him more power. The power to pull the muling body he now occupied up to standing.
With his attention fully focused on the angel, he did not see the men stumble into the light.
_,.-'~'-.,_
It is working, Galmadriel thought as she let her light go just a bit dimmer, he thinks he is winning. Earthwalkers—their egos are always their downfall. She pasted a concerned look on her face knowing Billy would assume weakness and expend most of his power in what he thought would be a killing blast.
Having always walked with darkness, he did not understand the power of light. Or the universal law that what you send out will come back to you times three. Her plan was simple. Any schoolchild who ever used the old comeback, “I am rubber you are glue,” would understand exactly what was going to happen next.
Still, it required utter focus and precision to emit exactly enough light to counteract his darkness but no more. In fact, these women were sending so much more than she needed that dimming her own was not only meant to deceive the earthwalker, but also to maintain the balance. Too much could set off a boomerang effect with dire consequences.
It was her own mistake that cost her. In maintaining the needed level of concentration, she forgot about the four men ranged outside the vortex she had created to contain both light and dark energy.
Delight filled her as she watched Billy pull himself up—almost ready—so sure of his own triumph and yet so woefully outmatched. He gathered himself. She prepared to counter. He did not disappoint. He threw everything he had toward her; she caught his power with her own and began to feed light into his darkness.
That was the moment when she felt hands grasping hers and lost control of everything.
_,.-'~'-.,_
Zack stepped between Gustavia and Kat. Looking around he saw the others taking their places, with Tyler between Julie and Galmadriel.
Nothing changed.
Billy now stood in the center spewing venomous words at the angel whose light was slowly dimming.
Zack nodded to the other men and all three reached out to grasp the hands of the women on either side of them.
Galmadriel screamed, “No,” but it was too late. At the touch of Tyler’s hand, a tremendous wave of power shot through her as each man added his color of light to the blazing shaft. Red from Zack, orange from, Tyler, Finn’s a deep indigo and Reid the palest of pinks. He fully expected to be teased about it later.
_,.-'~'-.,_
Three things happened simultaneously. The windstorm they had created stopped. Just ceased its fury, twigs and leaves froze in the abruptly stilled air then dropped to litter the ground in a perfect arc.
With a mighty boom, Billy was sucked out of Logan as if by a cosmic vacuum cleaner and yanked, screaming, into a pinpoint of nothingness. A loud zipping noise cut off the last of his shrieks.
Without making a sound, Kat slumped to the ground.
Chapter 21
“Gustavia, go check on Kat.” Keeping one eye on her crumpled form, Zack choosing duty while trusting his sister to care for his heart, split off to deal with Logan. Tyler followed Zack in case their quarry made any further trouble.
Crying and begging for mercy, Logan had no fight left in him. It was only the work of a couple minutes to get him into restraints, read him the revised Miranda, and stash him safely in the backseat of Zack’s cruiser.
Something is wrong with Kat.
Kat might have called it sensitivity, he considered it intuition but both of these terms were little more than semantics. Something was wrong and Zack knew it with a certainty that had his heart hammering in his chest and lent speed to his feet.
Gustavia, her face a mask of concern, was the first to reach Kat where she lay unmoving on the grass. A breath stealing dread settled over Amethyst who was only a step behind. From what she could see, Kat no longer had an aura and in her experience, that could only mean one thing—the very worst thing had happened.
She was gone.
Falling to her knees beside Kat’s prone body, Gustavia reached out a trembling hand to check for a pulse. It was there, steady and strong.
“She’s alive.”
Courtesy of their timer, the fairy lights strung along the eaves of the gazebo flickered to life in the cooling darkness, their twinkling lights cheery but providing very little illumination.
When Julie spoke in her ear, Amethyst left Gustavia with Kat and strode over to Galmadriel where she now knelt on the grass, her body hunched over as though in prayer.
Filled with concern for Kat, Amethyst only spared enough attention to notice the light normally emanating from the Angel was so greatly reduced that her face was no longer visible but there was no time to be concerned about what that might mean.
“Help her. There must be something you can do.” Amethyst reached out to grab Galmadriel’s arm but then thought better of it. Being on the bad side of an angry angel once was a lesson learned for life, she snatched her hand back.
A second, closer look told her Kat might not be the only one needing help. This time, when her hand reached out, it was with the right intention and she cleared what she could, as quickly as possible, from the weakened aura.
“Go,” Galmadriel’s voice was hoarse, “take Kathleen inside. I will be along presently.”
Zack and Tyler had
jogged back to where the entire group was now gathered around Kat. “Let’s get her inside.” Zack bent to scoop the unconscious woman into his arms.
Every step toward the house, his gut screamed a little louder that something was very, very wrong. Kat’s body felt boneless. Gently he lowered her to the sofa then glanced back over his shoulder to see his shock and despair echoed in every pair of eyes save one.
Galmadriel face was blank, glazed as though she was tuned in to something none of them could see.
“I can’t see her aura. It’s like she’s not there anymore.” Amethyst said again to Galmadriel.
“In the backlash of extra power, her soul followed the earthwalker when he left this plane of existence.”
Fury washed over Zack at her words. “Just what does that mean? Is she dying? Did we send her to a dark place?” He thrust a hand through his hair until it stood wildly on end. “We have to get her back. Tell me what to do.” His voice rose until it sounded unnaturally loud in the room.
“Silence.” Galmadriel’s command sounded equally harsh. “If you had listened to me in the first place, this would not have happened.” She paused to let that bit of information sink in.
“There is a way but we must hurry. Julius, you and Estelle will join me in creating a bridge to the other side. Amethyst, you will help your friends anchor that bridge in this plane. One of you must cross over to bring her back. There will be risk. You must now choose who it is to be.”
“I’ll go. I’ve known her longest,” Gustavia volunteered.
“No. I’ll go. It has to be me. Don’t you see? I love her and I’ll bring her back because I’m not sure I can live without her,” Zack insisted.
“How long have you known?”
“Probably since I rescued her from that first date but two minutes ago is the first time I admitted it to myself. I need to tell her.” Zack turned to Galmadriel.
“Tell me what to do. I’m ready.”
“Follow your heart. It will not fail to lead you but heed my warning. If you tarry overlong, you will share her fate.”
Wherever She Goes (Psychic Seasons Page 14