Beacon's Fury (Potomac Shadows Book 3)

by Jim Johnson

  Give me whatever etherics you have left!

  I funneled what little energy I had left and pushed it toward Charity, and sensed Malcolm doing likewise. Even then, it felt pitifully meager, not at all like what I was used to wielding back home.

  Malcolm and I ran pell-mell toward the nearing gap in the Veil. Charity erected a shield behind us. The ‘geists cried out in anger as they swooped down toward us but bounced off her shield.

  How close are we? I can’t keep this up much longer!

  “Almost there!” I cried.

  I shifted my grip on Malcolm so that our etheric forms were holding hands. “On three, Malcolm, jump for the fissure. One…two…”

  We both yelled out three as Charity screamed, and then we dove into the Veil in an explosion of bright silver light and a cacophony of ‘geist screams punctuated by our own cries.

  Chapter Three

  MALCOLM AND I CRASHED OUT OF the Veil and back into our physical bodies. We were still laying on a large green woolen blanket we had spread out on the cement floor of the basement below my friend Bonita’s little store.

  Once my etheric form was safely back in my body, I took quick stock of my physical self and then took a good, deep breath of air. God, that felt good. It had taken me a while to figure out how to disconnect my body from my etheric senses while in the ley grid, something Miss Chin had taken some time to train me on.

  Malcolm sat up, slowly, wincing in pain. He reached an arm around to touch his back. “Damn, that smarts.”

  I reached out to gather etheric threads, grateful that we were back in the normal world and had access to all the threads we needed. I checked the warding dome I had erected around us in preparation for our trip through the Veil, and added some additional energy to it.

  “Hold tight, Malcolm. I need to make sure none of those ‘geists make it through after us.”

  I had sensed at least a couple of the ‘geists closing in as we made our escape. I gathered threads and prepared to shield us against any incoming threat, but by the time I focused on it, the rift in the Veil had closed.

  I sensed Charity’s etheric form return to the old, weatherbeaten leather journal that housed her essence. I sensed a sigh of relief from her once she had settled in.

  That was a close-run thing.

  I nodded. “Are you sure none of them are coming through?”

  One made it just inside the rift, but I was able to push it out long enough to collapse the grid-side entrance and hurry through to close this side of the rift. I think we’re safe, for now.

  “I don’t know if we’re ever going to be safe, not as long as the Spinner is out there, raising problems.”

  I cannot disagree with that statement.

  I glanced at Malcolm. “How badly are you hurt?”

  He shrugged out of his purple Ravens hoodie and tried to crane his face around to look. “Hell if I know. How about you tell me?”

  I made a sigh of exasperation, though I suspected he saw right through me and knew that I didn’t really mean it. I liked to put up a good front, but I think he knew I was something of a soft touch.

  Well, sort of boss. I’d been working for Malcolm for just over a month, and didn’t really consider it a real job, though the money sure was good, just as Malcolm had promised when he had offered me the job.

  I moved over to him and knelt down behind him. I untucked his black t-shirt and then hiked it up his back. I studied his brown-skinned expanse of muscles.

  “Jeez, Malcolm, do you even lift?”

  He snorted. “I move furniture for a living, Rachel. Do that long enough and you’ll have a few muscles too.”

  I didn’t have a good comeback for that, so just focused on trying to find any physical wound that might match up with the etheric damage he’d taken while in the ley grid.

  “I don’t see any scars, cuts, or burns. No blood either. How do you feel?”

  He rubbed his shoulder with a free hand. “Like I said, hurts like hell. But if there’s no blood and no obvious damage, I guess I got lucky.”

  Through the telepathic connection we had forged together, Charity sighed. That may be true in this case, but let’s all try to be more careful in the future. I don’t know enough about this Spinner to say for certain, but there have been practitioners of the etherics that are able to inflict such grievous wounds while in etheric form that the wounds display on their target’s physical body. I’ve even heard of instances where those strong with the threads can kill a person from a distance, using etheric forms and their connection to the ley grid.

  I shuddered and wrapped my arms around myself. Even in July, Bonita’s basement was chilly, and I had left my customary hoodie in a heap over by a stack of our stuff outside the protective dome arc.

  “That sound awful. Why would anyone blessed with our gifts want to use them to destroy rather than create or heal?”

  Malcolm let out a short, sharp laugh. “Shit, that’s human nature, Rachel. It’s way easier to tear something down than to build something.”

  I sensed agreement from Charity. Thus it has always been. Building something takes time and effort, and doesn’t always succeed in the way you want it to.

  I nodded, and moved to sit down cross-legged next to Malcolm. “You can get dressed. I think you’re going to be fine.”

  He smirked at me, all white teeth set against his brown skin. “Could have told you that, but thanks for looking anyway.” He shrugged back into his purple hoodie. “Now what do we do?”

  The million-dollar question. I reached out with my etheric threads to confirm a suspicion, then nodded once I got the answer I had expected. “The ‘geists don’t seem to chasing us through the ley grid. That tells me that they’re conserving their energy. If the Spinner wanted us dead, he’d throw everything he had at us as soon and as often as possible.”

  I glanced at Malcolm and sensed a wave of encouragement from Charity. “That he didn’t do that makes me think he’s testing us, or maybe preparing for something bigger.”

  Malcolm finished adjusting his clothes and focused on me. “Worse than that fight we had at Branchwood.”

  I nodded and then scanned once more for any nearby ‘geists. “That’s right. If that power conduit we checked out in the ley grid can contain as much power as we suspect, I think we’re in for some real trouble soon.”

  Unless we can conjure a way to disable or destroy the Spinner’s power source and node or nodes, if there is more than one of them in or near to be in service, he may soon have a power source capable of laying waste to entire city blocks or chunks of the Holding, if he so chose.

  I shook my head and gathered up the crystal hanging around my neck. As usual after any ley working I attempted, the thing was light up nearly as bright as a fluorescent bulb, rivaling the thin streams of golden light pushing through the sole grimy window in the basement.

  “We can’t let that happen. Not again. He contributed to wrecking part of Branchwood. We can’t let him destroy more property here.”

  And even then, we have to be vigilant that he doesn’t destroy key parts of the Holding either.

  Malcolm glanced at the journal that contained Charity’s essence. “And how would we stop him from doing that when we can barely even hold our own against the ‘geists he has twisted to his own ends?”

  I frowned, thinking the exact same question. “I’d like to think the three of us can handle it, but I agree that we need some help.”

  Malcolm stared at me. “But who? Miss Chin?”

  I stared at him, my mind drawing a blank. “Well, yeah?”

  He sighed. “Aren’t we suspicious of Miss Chin at the moment? I don’t know that I’d trust her to make decisions that were entirely in our best interest.”

  I reached out and loosened the threads holding the warding dome together and let the construct collapse around us in a shower of golden-white light. “I know all that, Malcolm. I don’t trust her either.”

  We both suspected that Miss Chin was
responsible for the memory loss my grandpa and Malcolm’s grandma both suffered from, but as yet we had nothing but our suspicions as proof.

  We could determine the truth, but it will take some time.

  I reached down and picked up the leather journal that contained Charity’s soul. “I know. But given what just happened in the ley grid, I don’t know that we have much time to screw around.”

  Malcolm stood up and cleared his throat. “What about Detective Bello?”

  I turned to stare at him. “You’re not serious, are you? The last person next to Miss Chin I want involved is Bello.” We’d had a couple run-ins with Bello, and they’d been strange enough that I wanted to avoid him for as long as possible.

  Malcolm shrugged into his hoodie. “Dude knows how to sling threads and work the grid, is all I’m sayin’. And I don’t think he has the same agenda Miss Chin does.”

  I bit the inside of my lip as I gathered up my satchel and hoodie. “I just don’t know, Malcolm. As suspicious as I am of Miss Chin, I think we go to her first, sound her out, and then approach Bello only if we need a second opinion or more help than we want to accept from Miss Chin.”

  He moved to stand next to me and stared down at me in silence for several long moments. I stared up into his black eyes, unwilling to back down. I could be ornery if I put my mind to it, and this was one of those times.

  Finally, he blinked and looked away. “All right, Rachel. Let’s try it your way. Where’s Miss Chin right now?”

  I sighed and pulled out my smartphone and keyed it on. I was pleased to see the welcome screen pop on. For whatever reason, electronics and ley threads didn’t play well together, and both Malcolm and I had burned through our share of phones since getting exposed to the ley grid months ago.

  I checked the calendar I shared with Miss Chin. “Unless she had a hot Tinder date swipe over, which I cringe to imagine being possible, she’s in the city, probably over near the National Cathedral. We mapped about a hundred small rifts in the Veil around there, and she was going to patch up as many as she could.”

  Malcolm nodded and fished his car keys out of his hoodie pocket. “Sounds like a nice drive to me. Wanna come?”

  I shoved Charity’s journal into my satchel and then slung the satchel onto my shoulder. “Sure. You drive, and I’ll treat to Mickey D’s.”

  Malcolm snorted. “Big spender.”

  I pushed past him and bounded up the spiral staircase leading to the main level of Bonita’s shop. “Talk my boss into giving me a raise and I’ll upgrade our eats.”

  This shut him up. I smirked all the way to his car.

  Chapter Four

  THE SWIRLING BLUE ENERGIES OF THE ley grid pulsed all around the Spinner as he stretched out his etheric form in the large pool he had created for himself within the Holding. His physical body was broken, incapable of entering a bathroom much less the Holding, but his mind was strong and he could will himself to any place he wanted.

  And he liked this place he had created with his own will and skill with the etheric threads. He studied the virtual spigot that stretched far out and connected to the large ley grid located under the DC metro area, centered around the area just west and south of the nation’s capital. Virginia had been in existence for longer than the city of Washington, and the ley grid had been built long before the officials of the country had figured out where to place the nation’s capital.

  But the Spinner wasn’t much of a history buff and didn’t care much about the wherefores and the whys of the grid’s construction. What he did care about was that the thing was full of power for the taking, and he had helped himself.

  Those children had figured out where his conduit was located, but no matter. He had lost a few ‘geists in the battle, but if there was one thing he didn’t lack for, it was raw materials and raw power to bend more lost souls to his will. The power he’d siphoned off the ley grid was gathered here, all around him in his pool, and the Holding itself was home to countless millions of lost souls, waiting for a sign to move onto the next stage of their development, or for a Beacon’s guiding light to take them to the next plane of existence, whatever that may shape up to be.

  He didn’t know, and he didn’t care. He wanted the power, and he wanted the satisfaction of taking apart that girl Rachel and her friend Malcolm. As well as anyone else they happened to touch in life.

  They had been thorns in his side for months, and had rendered him nearly incapacitated for weeks. He’d been gathering his strength since then, and now, he was nearly ready to turn up the heat on Rachel and her allies.

  He sat up in his pool of energy and settled his mind into a familiar meditative trance. He floated in the ley energies for a dozen or more minutes, and then opened his etheric eyes. It was time.

  “Oh, girl, you have no idea what I am capable of, and no idea what hell I am going to rain down on you.”

  He reached out for one particular ley thread and yanked on it. In short order, a cruel-looking ‘geist, all claws and teeth and black skin with gray stripes, a twisted soul formed into the shape of a terrifying tiger, loped into the virtual room containing his ley pool and stalked around the edges, desperate for a command or for release.

  “Stop fidgeting, my pet. The time has come to take off your leash and set you free to wreak havoc in the real world.”

  He stood his etheric form up in the pool and rotated his hands in a gesture that swirled the energies contained within the pool faster and faster. He raised his hands as he spun them, and a vortex of golden-yellow energy appeared in front of him.

  He focused his will and used the vortex of energy to tear open a hole in the Veil, adjusting it slightly so that he had a good sense of where in the city he’d be sending this glorious monstrosity.

  “There. Now, go, my pet. Go into the world and destroy as many lives as you are able. If you catch sight of Rachel or her ally Michael, you are to subdue but not kill either one of them. Is that understood?”

  The ‘geist stared at him blankly, a hungry edge to its demeanor.

  The Spinner sighed and pushed one of his ley threads, pulsing with raw power, into the heart of the ‘geist and sent some compulsions deep into what remained of the thing’s soul. It had once been a living, breathing human male, but had spent a few years in the Holding seeking its path. The Spinner had happened upon him and had twisted him to a newer, more glorious purpose.

  The ‘geist’s shadowy halo took on a yellow-gold tinge, an aftereffect of being influenced by his own aura.

  In a matter of moments, it was done. The Spinner withdrew the thread of power. “Now, go forth and wreak as much damage as you can. If you can capture either Rachel or Malcolm, do so and bring them to me.”

  The ‘geist’s eyes flared once, an evil golden flash, and then turned and sped into the swirling vortex of the rift he had created. With a snap, the ‘geist disappeared through the Veil.

  The Spinner stared at the spinning rift for a few moments, then with a wave of his hand and a twisting of the ley threads, collapsed it.

  The ‘geist would never return. He had sent it on its final journey. He was sure Rachel or Malcolm would destroy it if they encountered it, and if they didn’t, he suspected there were other etheric agents working in the area with the means to do it themselves.

  He didn’t care. He wanted to keep them guessing, to keep the distractions going. He had a master-stroke in the works, and nothin they did to a single ‘geist here and there would make a difference. He fully expected the girl and her allies to get consumed by the distractions and miss the real event until it was too late.

  But, he stopped himself. Too much thinking and not enough doing. He settled his etheric form back into the pool of ley energies, and returned to his meditative state. He needed just a few more pieces to fall into place.

  And then his reign would begin in earnest.

  Chapter Five

  AS MALCOLM CRUISED UP AND DOWN Lowell Street looking for parking, I pulled a few ley threads into my
core. I siphoned off some of their latent power and placed it into a little mental holding cell I had created, with Charity’s help.

  Well done, Rachel. Do you feel the difference in the weight of the power within you?

  I nodded, more to myself than toward her. I patted the satchel on my lap, where Charity’s journal was safely housed. I focused inward, on the cell and the feelings I got from it.

  After a few moments of focus, I spoke with her telepathically. “I do feel something different. It’s like…the latent power within the ley threads that we reach out and gather, but it feels a little heavier, more present, than those.”

  Which made sense, I guess. The power was within me rather than housed in a thread I had to reach out and grab.

  Exactly right, Rachel. If I understand your time’s nomenclature correctly, you’ve essentially created a rechargeable battery within your power core, a battery you should keep charged as often as you can so that if you find yourself in a place with no or low ley threads, you’ll have something to work with.

  I glanced at Malcolm. “Think this is something we can teach Malcolm?”

  Certainly. It’s a Weaver talent, not unique to Beacons. All of us can benefit from this skill.

  I grinned and tapped Malcolm on the arm as he slung his Mustang into a parking space. “I’m guessing you’ve tuned me and Charity out?”

  He finished his parking maneuver and then shut down the car and glanced at me. “What? Yeah. Sometimes you two go on a bit and I kind of stop listening. I’m sure you’ll tell me something when you need me to hear it.”

  I rolled my eyes. “This is reason number twenty-six why you’re single, Malcolm. Listening to your partner is kinda important. I learned that lesson from Abbie early on, sure enough.”

  He shook his head as he opened his driver-side door. “I hear you. What’s up?”

  I piled out of the passenger side door and closed it behind me as I stretched my arms once out. “Charity and I were discussing the value of creating sort of a ley battery within our core, to be used whenever we get caught up in a situation like the one we just got out of.”