Elemental Shadows

by Phaedra Weldon

  "Fundraiser," he said as he gestured around. "I promised my aunt I'd show up and I forgot till I left Rose's house and found messages from my aunt on my phone. Crwys and Levi took a taxi back to the Kennett house."

  "You keep a suit in your car?"

  "Damn straight I do. Never know when you might need one," Kyle smirked. "I also keep a whole change of clothing in my trunk, along with an emergency toiletry kit."

  I returned his smirk. "Nice. So, what's the fundraiser for?"

  "Avondale Women's Shelter. Arden's a big supporter when it comes to domestic violence cases. Avondale is one of her most successful shelters. They were hacked about a month ago and two of their workers were killed. So this party is to raise money for their families and prove to the community that Avondale Shelters shouldn't be closed."

  Women's Shelter. Ivan's story about the hacker came back to me. Ivan looked like he was going to be sick. I grabbed the collar of his hoodie and brought him down to my level. "Please tell me Avondale wasn't the shelter that kid hit?"

  He just stared at me.

  "Shit…"

  "It's worse than that." Ivan looked around before he leaned in close and spoke in my ear. "Remember how I said I hid the proof that would incarcerate him?"

  Oh no.

  "What are you two whispering about?" Kyle leaned in. It was hard to hear with all the people milling about and talking.

  I grabbed them both by the upper arms and led them through the red room in the back, the one I always thought looked like a bordello and outside to the pool. Since it was December and cold, no one was out and the pool was covered. Which seemed odd to me since the pool was enclosed in mesh.

  I faced both of them. I had Ivan update Kyle on the shelter and what he'd done to Ronald Kennett. I followed the story all the way to hearing the name of Avondale. "So now answer my question, Ivan."

  The two of them looked at each other. When Kyle put his hand to his forehead, I knew it as going to be bad news. Ivan said, "Kyle asked me to hack his aunt's servers once—back when I first started working at the store. I, uh…I did it because it was easy and apparently they haven't changed their security in six months. So I found a nice, empty patch of drive real estate on one of them, upgraded the encryption and security for that particular server and…just left it there."

  "Christ, Ivan," Kyle said. "You left damning evidence about this hacker and Soul Machine on one of my aunt's servers?"

  "Who would ever think to look there?" Ivan shrugged. "Come on, give me a break. Think about it."

  "Ivan," I said when it became clear he didn't see the correlation. "If you could find that tiny bit of real estate, who's to say somebody else wouldn't? You said it yourself that it was possible he traced the information. And if he traced it there, it is conceivable he believed that someone in Arden's company, or companies, was the one that hacked him."

  "Which means you set her up." Kyle ran his fingers through his thick, dark hair. "Oh damn, Sam. Do you think that's who’s framing Arden for those murders?"

  I held up a hand. My own brain was spinning faster than it should and I wanted to go off in search of coffee. Black. Strong. Fatigue pressed down heavy on my shoulders. "Who's framing Arden? Ronald Kennett? How? He's dead."

  "Then what about killing those Elders, that is, if this guy was a Witch like Ivan."

  "No…look at the timeline." Eh gads for a white board! "Ivan said he hacked this guy two weeks ago. Threatened him. That puts it in the middle of the two weeks his parents were gone."

  "Which means he was dead when the Elders were killed," said a new, distinctly feminine and familiar voice.

  Everyone turned to see Emily Pearson step outside to the pool. She wore a little black dress that actually flattered her full size. She carried a clutch and walked expertly in high, satin black heels. She smiled as she approached and held her hand out to Ivan. "I'm Emily. I think you know what I am thanks to Samantha, but we haven't been formerly introduced."

  My heart raced when Ivan shook her hand. "I'm Ivan Westerfield."

  "Yes. The third and less Gifted of Sam's little band of Merry Men. She's a lot like her mother. Tends to attract the strays. So, tell me more about how you hacked this hacker? I take it this is what you do in the mundane world?"

  Ivan glanced at me. I gave him a slight nod. Apparently Emily hadn't been tipped that the hacking was a magical hacking.

  I was surprised to see Grey step outside and come padding up beside me. In fact, she sat in front of me, facing Emily, putting herself between us. It would have been interesting to see the faces of the guests inside when a dog the size of a wolf came trotting through as if she knew her business.

  "Yes, ma'am. I'm a computer systems analyst. Or I was."

  "Before your Gift came to you?"

  I must say I was impressed to see Ivan work with it. "That's exactly it! How did you know?" He feigned surprise well.

  "Because it happens to all of us. And I'm sure working with computers and then having a Gift—those things didn't work, did they?"

  "No, ma'am. All the magnetic fields kept buggering up."

  "Emily. Please call me Emily."

  "Emily."

  Kyle, Grey and I did the ping-pong conversation follow, going from Ivan on the left and Emily on the right. He'd played her. Oh Sweet Lord he’d played her and he was good at it!

  Something red glittered around Kyle's left, suit jacket pocket. I smelled the Arcane as well as saw it. Without a signal to latch on to, the son of a bitch was trying to peak out and see where he could go. I glanced at Emily who appeared to be enthralled in conversation with Ivan. And who wouldn't be? The guy was cute as hell.

  Grey nudged my hand and I petted her head. "Yeah," I said in a low voice. "I see it."

  My hope was it would just stay where it was and choose a more opportune time to step out of the phone—one that didn't involve manifesting in front of a Cleric.

  That just wasn't going to happen, the thing literally spilled out of Kyle's pocket and puddled on the floor. Just a flat, gooey looking mass of jellied red glitter. And if I looked hard enough, I could just see the Hammer in its flash drive form in the very center of it. Just an outline in darker red.

  Three seconds after wondering if anyone else could see it; Ivan did a classic double take at Kyle. Emily looked to see what had Ivan's attention. She did a double take too.

  Kyle looked at the two of them staring at him and he put his hands to his suit jacket. "What? Did I spill crab dip on me?"

  When he looked down, he made a slightly high-pitched noise and backed away from the puddle.

  Guess that answered my question, didn't it?

  Two seconds later the red glittering puddle was replaced by a six-foot man made of Shadow.

  Yeah it was big. And scary looking. And it had my necklace around its neck.

  Thief!

  "What the hell is that?" Emily had already dropped her drink on the tiled patio as pentagrams of white formed a barrier around her. I spotted her Gnome as she jumped out of one of the pentagrams and landed with a thud in her iron boots. The thick lass shook her axe at the Shadow Person.

  I too was summoning my Elementals and felt a bit of guilt when the Sylph appeared next to me, yawning. If I was tired, they were tired, as they were a direct reflection of my connection to the Elements. I hadn't slept yet and we were all thinking it felt like Monday.

  I nodded to the Shadow Person and the Sylph gasped as large yellow pentagrams formed all the way around the swimming pool area.

  The Shadow figure darted toward the doors leading back inside. I wasn't sure if I was really juiced or if it was running really slow because…it was running really slow. Instead of a speedy sprint to the doors it was in a leisurely jog. That slow speed also gave my brain enough time to process a few ideas.

  This thing had been hiding inside of electronic devices—who knew they could do that? That meant there was a possibility they were as defenseless against certain attacks as say, a phone or a computer.
The worst thing I could think of was a magnetic pulse. But shorting out the entirety of the Garden District wasn't on my agenda tonight.

  So I combined two of the Elements to create a concentrated static charge—we call that lightning—and sent it at the thing's back.

  The Shadow seemed to short out. It blinked between being visible and not. And it slowed its advance at the doors. But that was because my Sylph's pentagrams were creating a barrier. He was siphoning off electricity from Arden's house and electrifying the fence, so to speak.

  I came around one side and Ivan bolted around the other, each of us without defenses ready. Ivan got to it first and released an eerie green bolt of what looked like 1s and 0s that twisted and wrapped around its body. The Shadow figure did more of that blinking off and on thing as it writhed under Ivan's assault.

  Glancing at Emily, I noticed her watching Ivan a little too intensely and decided his power didn't need to be common knowledge. Not yet. So I conjured up my exorcism spell and hit it with that.

  The impact broke Ivan's bolt as white and green 1s and 0s danced and bounced all over the tiles. He was shoved back against the door the Shadow figure had tried to escape through. That impact brought with it a gathering of watching eyes from inside.

  Shit. Most of these people were Cowens and did not need to see this. I looked up at one of the lights illuminating the pool and sent the Sylph to short-circuit it. Once it started spewing sparks, the Gnome ran over and chopped at the pole holding it.

  I guided the ensuing energy at the Shadow figure, juicing it a bit more than before until it literally erupted in a sparkling display of red and dark glitter. When it was gone, I saw my necklace fall on the tiled floor. Ivan got to his feet and ran to me, bending just enough to grab the necklace, and made it look like he was getting Emily and me out of the way of the sparking light.

  The pentagrams faded away as they were dismissed and those of us out at the pool came into the room.

  "Thanks Ivan," I said, just loud enough for others to hear.

  "Yes, young man, that was a brave thing you did." Another man said and shook Ivan's hand.

  "That was just awful. Emily, are you okay?" One of the older ladies in a nice silver dress approached Emily.

  I made sure to lock eyes with Emily and she gave me an almost imperceptible nod. "Oh yes, Victoria. I'm fine."

  "Excuse me, hello, my party, out of my way shugars," Arden Vervain's voice rose above the den of talking guests as she emerged from the crowed. Arden was dressed in a lovely, deep purple gown, coiffed to the nines and not looking anything like someone who'd spent time in jail that morning.

  Me?

  I looked like wilted lettuce.

  When she spotted us she smiled. "Sam, Ivan….I had no idea you were here. And you brought your…dog."

  Grey came up beside me and several guests reached out to stroke her flank. "Yes, we came here to see you. I'm sorry to crash your party. Kyle didn't mention you were having a fundraiser tonight."

  "He didn't?" She gave him a sideways look. "Interesting." Then she moved to the door leading out to the darkened patio. "I see one of my lights went out."

  "Yes, Miss Vervain," a guest said. "And if it wasn't for this striking young man here, Emily and these other people could have been electrocuted!"

  Heads nodded. I tried not to make a wise-ass remark.

  "Oh, it was nothing," Ivan suddenly spoke up. "Just something I learned after my mom moved us to a shelter."

  Okay…I called shenanigans. But he now had every eye in the house on him.

  "You were in a shelter, dear?" said the woman who asked Emily if she were okay. Victoria.

  Ivan nodded to her. "My mom was brought over from Japan as a mail order bride. My father was cruel to her after I was born, and if it hadn't of been for places like the Avondale Shelter, we might not have survived."

  I slipped back as guests surged closer to Ivan. Kyle was in the background as well, watching with an amused smirk on his face. Grey made her way out of the crowd and sat beside me. "He really knows when to put on the charm."

  Kyle snorted. "You just now noticed?"

  Arden stepped up and started talking to her guests as they whipped out their credit cards and checkbooks. Her little helpers, most of them members of her Coven, walked around with wireless transaction machines and bank CASH lockable pouches.

  "You do realize," Kyle said in a low voice. "Ivan's going to have my aunt eating out of his hands."

  "I think that's what he intended," I looked up at him. "You okay?"

  "Sure. Why wouldn't I be?"

  "Well, we haven't really talked—"

  "Sam, don't bring up Crwys now. Please. It's your shop, your business. If you want him to be a part of it, then fine."

  "That wasn't it. I didn't want him to do it—" I held out my hands. "He just…did it. Came in and announced it to me."

  When Kyle didn't answer I narrowed my eyes at him. "You don't care."

  "Not really."

  "What the hell is wrong with you?"

  "With me? What the hell's wrong with you?"

  "What?" I took a step back and Grey whined. "I'm not the one who doesn't come to work on a regular basis, and I'm not the one that disappeared for those hours two weeks ago—"

  "Oh, you are not going to bring that up again," he turned a very unpleasant face down at me. "I had things to do, Sam. I have a life. And I keep some of my life private. I don't live it out in the open like you do for everyone to see."

  His words hurt. A lot. And I didn't want to admit that to him or to myself. Instead I kept my hand on Grey's neck and she bumped up against my leg. "You didn't tell us about this fundraiser because you didn't want us here."

  "Got it in one."

  "Why not?"

  He held out his hands. "Hello? Look around?"

  "What I'm seeing is your aunt making a lot of money for a good cause and she's doing it because we're here. Now get the hell over yourself."

  "Sure. Fine. Here comes your golden boy."

  I didn't have time to ask him what he meant by that as Arden and Ivan approached us. Ivan stood by me as Arden handed a few of the money pouches to Kyle. "You got the Hammer?"

  "I've already uploaded it."

  I stared at his face. "You okay? Last time it looked like it made you sick."

  "I wasn't used to doing it then. I've been practicing. I mean, yeah I've got a headache and I'm going to need to get rid of it as soon as I can, but I'll be alright. You want me to make a copy of it before we leave?"

  "No. Wait till we get back to the shop."

  There was a pause. "Sam?"

  "Yes?"

  "You know that didn't kill it."

  "Yeah. I figured. Nothing's that easy."

  "I think to actually destroy it, you're going to have to find where it’s housing its base memory."

  I blinked. Frowned. "Say that again?"

  "I know who it is, now. When I touched it with my…whatever that was I did…I recognized its signature."

  "Signature?"

  "It's like a footprint. You leave it where you go. Same kind of residual energy you leave behind when you enter and leave a room, or when you cast a spell. That Shadow Person was once alive and it was just like me."

  I stared at him. "You mean…"

  "It's Ronald Kennett, Sam. That thing that spooked you, took the hammer, and just tried to escape is whatever was in his computer when his body died."

  "You mean…our theories were right?"

  "Yeah. And what's worse?"

  "There's worse?"

  Ivan nodded. "He knows who I am now."

  "Sam!" Arden finished with Kyle and came up to us as she put her hand on my arm. "We need to talk."

  "If it's about hiring Ivan out, I'm afraid the answer is no."

  She laughed as she guided us away from the dispersing guests and into her private parlor behind the grand staircase. The Bordello room. Once inside, she closed the door and looked at both of us. Her smile was slow a
nd sweet. "Inamorata has it, doesn't she?"

  I wasn't sure what to think about this turn of conversation. "Has what?"

  "The Hammer. I know for a fact she wanted it as much as I did."

  "Uh…no. I don't think my aunt has the Hammer."

  "I bet she does. And that's why she ran away. You do know she's gone, right?"

  "I noticed the house was empty. She hasn't been seen since Samhain."

  "The Clerics questioned me about that too." Arden moved to her wicker fan back chair. She pointed to Ivan. "Care to tell me more about this one's very interesting Gift?"

  Ivan and I glanced at one another. I shook my head. "He's Dianic."

  "What I saw attack that Shadow wasn't Dianic, Samantha. In fact, it wasn't anything I've seen before. Spill it."

  I stepped toward her. "You saw the Shadow?"

  "When people enter rooms in my house I know it. I was watching from the room above. I saw everything. I also saw him pick something up. Something that Shadow dropped," she held out her hand. "Let me see it."

  Ivan frowned at her. "I picked up this," and he pulled a USB drive out of his pocket. It wasn't the one he'd turned into a Hammer, but one I'd seen him use before. He handed it to her.

  She examined it, held it out and then tossed it back to him. "One mystery solved. What Dianic Gift does he have?"

  I shook my head. "Tell me what you know about the Coyote Flame."

  The look on Arden's face told me that question had come at her from left field. "Why in the hell do you want to know about that?"

  "It's important."

  "Then you'll tell me what his power is?"

  "Is it really that important?"

  "Yes."

  "You want me to help you clear your name and not do jail time?"

  Her eyes narrowed. "Yes."

  "Then you don't need to know." I took a closer step. "What is a Coyote Flame? I heard it was a door into the other worlds."

  Arden made a nasty noise. "It's a piece of Ceremonial rubbish is what it is. Damn Quinn."

  "Quinn?" I didn't know if that was a name or a term.

  "Quinn Ragland. Noted Magician around the turn of the century. Discovered the Other Worlds. No one knows how he did it, but he was obsessed with finding a door into what he called other dimensions. And when he couldn't find one, he made one. Over one thousand homeless and ill innocents lost their lives with his experiment. He did it. He made a door that would take anyone from this world into another world," she held up her finger. "But, the catch was the other side wasn't stable. Eight out of ten times the door shunted its poor victims into a solid object or into that limbo between worlds."