by Ramsey Isler
“No,” I said. “Let me handle it.” I opened myself to the Rift and tried to draw out the stuff in Brody’s lungs, but it wouldn’t come out the same way it came in and I couldn’t just yank it out of him without doing even more damage.
“What the hell is wrong with him?” Allen asked.
I was about to tell him, but then I saw we had company. A horde of shadowy floating creatures was approaching. Our friend with the tentacles brought some backup. The Men with Guns must have noticed my shocked expression, because they all turned and looked to see what I was staring out. The nasties were just barely visible in the moonlight, but they were definitely there, and coming at us fast.
“Use your lights!” I said. “Shooting at them won’t do a damn thing. Keep your lights pointed at them. I’ll handle Brody. Man up and take these things down.”
The Men with Guns snapped to attention once I said that. Their training came back and so did their resolve. The soldiers formed a circle to protect me and Brody, and they fired up their flashlights. With their backs to me and their eyes focused on the night, I proceeded to do the only thing I could to save Brody’s life.
First, I had to end his thrashing, so I cast a quick immobilization spell to keep him still. I ripped through his clothing and removed his bulletproof vest. Then I unsheathed my field knife, took a deep breath, and stabbed him through his left ribcage.
“Sorry about this,” I muttered to Brody, knowing that the pain had to be incredible. Moisture flowed freely from his eyes, and his breaths came in short, raspy spurts.
I stuck my flashlight deep into the bloody wound. If Brody could have found the breath, he would have screamed. But I had no time to worry about his comfort. He would thank me later, if he lived.
I tapped the power button on the high-powered flashlight, and its brilliant, focused beam illuminated Brody’s insides. I could feel the dark material in his left lung gradually start to melt away, and his breathing improved a bit. With each intake of breath, the material in his lung was forced to move, and more of it was shifted into the light. For maximum coverage, I had to twist and turn the flashlight to blast away as much of the darkness as possible. Brody’s eyes continued to stream tears. A pool of blood spread beneath him.
“We have to move!” Allen screamed behind me.
I spared a glance over my shoulder and saw that the team had their hands full with trying to keep their lights on a number of different Rift-kind, including some types I’d never seen before. My squad wouldn’t hold for long, and every second we spent dealing with the creatures was time our real quarry could use to escape. There had to be a nightcrafter around here. That was the only way to explain all this activity.
I turned my attention back to Brody. The black Rift-material inside him had largely dissipated in his left lung, but his right was still full of the stuff. The hole I made in his side was bleeding profusely, and his eyes were losing focus. He was breathing better, but he’d be dead soon if he didn’t get better medical attention than I could provide.
“Allen, pull your men back to the van!” I shouted. “Carry Brody back and get him to the medical team. He should be able to breathe long enough to make the trip.”
Allen looked at me, sweat covering his face. “What about these . . . things out here?”
I stood, and said. “I’ll take care of them.”
Allen didn’t need any further instructions. He barked orders to his men, and they provided cover for each other as they scooped up Brody and started to retreat. The Rift-kind moved in to follow. An idea blossomed in my head, but it would only work if these creatures were stupider and less aggressive than the nachtjäger. I stepped in front of them and opened myself fully to the Rift, drawing as much power from it as I could. It worked. Like moths to a flame, the shadowy creatures focused their attention on me.
Then I ran.
* * *
I’d never had that many Rift-kind on my tail before, and it’s an experience I don’t ever want to repeat. I could have thrown them off my trail, but I needed their attention on me, and not my team or the residents of the neighborhood. I focused my mind on my connection to the Rift so that I could find the person that caused all this mess while trying to draw as much darkness to me as possible. It was hard since my own frantic actions in the Rift created interference. Still, somewhere off in the distance, I could feel another presence.
My target had taken off at a good pace, but they were still nearby for some reason. Most nightcrafters would be completely out of the area by now. So my quarry was either purposely hanging around, or they just didn’t know how to get away faster. The second possibility ignited a spark of hope in me. Maybe I was dealing with another novice. An idea popped into my head — a great idea. I just hoped it wouldn’t get me killed.
I ran towards the nightcrafter as fast as I could, but I was running out of breath. I’d never been a particularly athletic guy, and my body was letting me know it was none too pleased with all this activity. But the frightening chills I felt from my pursuers kept me going inexorably forward.
I felt the nightcrafter’s presence grow stronger. It was close now, and no longer moving. Then the sensations shifted. The presence was now quickly diminishing, and those waves in the Rift were becoming tiny ripples. My prey was trying to hide. But where? I saw a group of hedges ahead. They were tall and overgrown; some gardener had been lax on their duties. Perfect place to hide.
Energy from the Rift still surrounded me and drew my friends with the tentacles closer. With nothing but strength of will, I collapsed all that power into a compact sphere. It was heavy like a massive little cannonball. I heaved it like a shot putter, throwing it towards the fading presence in the distance. The Rift-kind followed it, and ignored me. As they raced forward, they parted the tall hedges.
Then I saw her.
She was around my age. Slender. Short. She was dressed in an oversized sweat shirt and some loose jeans. Her face bore an expression that I could best describe as “fucking pissed”. We locked eyes for only a moment, then my little ball of Rift-material landed at her feet, and she had some inky new friends to deal with.
The girl was quick. As the dark creatures descended on her, she drew power from the Rift with a deftness and confidence that I still lack. She brought up a defensive wall that the creatures slammed right into. Like puppies that had just bumped their noses on a glass door, the creatures yelped and turned tail. She made it look all too easy, and I could tell by her expression that she was quite satisfied with herself.
But she forgot about the little ball of darkness at her feet.
I couldn’t help but smile as I reached out and unraveled my trap. The softball-sized sphere of condensed material from the Rift silently exploded as I released the pressure inside, all at once. The force of the explosion was incredible — far more than even I expected. The shock wave knocked me right on my ass, and I was forty yards away. At the point of explosion, a crater two feet deep blossomed into existence. The explosion blew the leaves off of nearby trees and their branches twisted and splintered. It all lasted just a couple of seconds, but it seemed to take forever. When it was over and I recovered myself, I surveyed the scene.
“Well I’ll be damned,” I said. “I really outdid myself this time.”
I saw the limp form of the young woman I had chased. She was lying face down, thirty feet away from where I last saw her. For a fleeting second I thought I might have miscalculated and actually killed her. But I could still feel her presence through the Rift, even though she was unconscious.
I heard a series of chirps and buzzes amidst static, and realized that somewhere along the line I’d taken out my radio earpiece, and it was now dangling in my jacket. I fished it out and listened.
“Kal,” Allen said. “Pick up if you’re there.”
“I’m here,” I said.
“Where are you? What happened?”
I looked at the young lady I’d defeated, and felt the presence of the scared Rift-kind dimi
nishing as they fled toward the ocean. I steadied my voice and said, “Mission accomplished.”
CHAPTER 5
The worst part of nightcrafting too much is the hangover. I’m not talking about anything like the aftermath of my beer binge with Newton in the Netherlands. This is way different.
Imagine the worst you’ve ever felt after a night of drinking, and then multiply that by three. That’s what I was feeling. Had I been more versed in the ways of the dark, I wouldn’t have felt this way. My tolerance would be higher, so to speak. But I’m still a lightweight, and the events of the previous night left me drained. I was exhausted, had a horrible headache, and the smallest sounds bellowed in my ears and made the pain in my head even worse. There was no cure for this. Only isolation and rest would put an end to my suffering.
But I would find neither at my current location.
I sat slumped over in a chair at Dominique’s office. The light coming through the windows was killing me. Each shaft of sunlight felt like a hot laser boring a hole directly into my soul. I just wanted to crawl into a dark, quiet place for a few days and be oblivious to the world. Eventually, I realized that Dominique was talking to me. It took considerable effort to focus on the words coming out of her mouth.
“You really screwed this up,” Dominique said.
“Really?” I muttered. “I thought I did pretty well, all things considered.”
“You and I have a very different view of success then,” Dominique said. “You almost got your men, my men, killed.”
“I never said this would be a walk in the park.”
“You also never said that you’d nearly obliterate a half acre of suburbia in New Jersey.”
“I didn’t mention that? Damn. I was sure I did.”
Dominique gave me an evil stare that could have turned a pint of apple juice into piss.
“Look,” I said, “obviously this could have gone better. But this was the first time anybody has ever tried anything like this. Ever. Yeah it was dirty, but I got the job done, and I’d appreciate it if you’d get off my back about it.”
“You have an attitude problem,” Dominique said.
“Getting bitched at tends to bring out that side of me.”
“That’s all you have to say for yourself?”
“Yup. So am I fired, or what?”
“The thought did cross my mind,” Dominique said. “But I’m feeling generous today. We will proceed. But you have new constraints on your activities. I’m requiring you to be more careful in your spell selection. No explosions.”
“No explosions within a hundred yards of a residence,” I said.
“Deal,” Dominique said. “Now let’s talk about what you actually did accomplish. This young lady you captured . . . do you think she’ll be a useful asset?”
“For now,” I said. “I figure she’ll be good practice as far as keeping nightcrafters captive. She’s an amateur like me, so she won’t be an impossible challenge. But she should put up a good fight, and that will give your guys some useful experience. That kind of information will come in handy when we start bringing in the heavy hitters.”
“I only want Kellar,” Dominique said.
“I understand that. But we have to take baby steps. Go too far too soon, and we could end up unprepared with a master nightcrafter on our hands. Those guys are more trouble than a sack of angry badgers.”
Dominique leaned back in her chair and contemplated my words. “We’ll learn as much as we can from her. Obviously, we’ll need more input from you on methods to keep her where we want her. We have her sedated now, but she’s of little use to us in that state. I want to be sure we can contain her once she’s awake.”
“I have some ideas on that,” I said. “I’ve already sent them to Newton. He’s working on it. You know how he is. He’ll probably have something amazing built in less than a day.”
“Good,” Dominique said.
“How’s Brody?” I asked.
“Alive,” Dominique answered. “Once your binding spell wore off, he was conscious long enough to tell the doctors what you did. They figured out the rest on their own, and finished the process. His lungs are fine.”
“Glad to hear it,” I said.
“Have you done something like that before?”
“Never. That was one hundred percent improvisation. I hope the doctors were able to do a better job at it than I did.”
“You cut a man open without the slightest idea of what you were doing?”
I shrugged. “It was either that, or watch him die.”
“I see,” Dominique said.
“Well,” I said, “I’m glad that all worked out. But I need to recover. I’m gonna take a sick day . . . or two . . . or three.”
“You’ll take one,” Dominique said. “No more. By the way, we’ve identified your captive. Her name is Madison Finnestra. Ring a bell?”
“Nope.”
“She was a graduate student studying physics at Columbia up until about six months ago. Her instructors said she gradually missed more and more classes, until eventually she stopped showing up at all.”
I shrugged and said, “That’s a pretty standard story for new recruits.”
“She has a family,” Dominique said. “They’d be happy to have her back.”
“She will be back. When she’s done with her training.”
“Her training is over, as far as we’re concerned.”
I shook my head and said, “We can try to keep her here, but I make no guarantees she won’t be able to get out. I’ll do what I can, but . . .”
“But what?”
“Honestly, she may be out my league.”
“You captured her.”
“Yeah, but that’s not all there is to it. You ever caught a rattlesnake?”
Dominique looked at me, confused. “What?”
“A rattlesnake,” I said. “Have you ever caught one?”
“What the hell? Of course not.”
“I have,” I said. “Before he died, my uncle on my mom’s side had a ranch in California. He used to catch rattlesnakes there. He took me along a couple times when I was kid. The thing about catching rattlers is that it’s surprisingly easy once you get over the fear of them. You don’t even have to be in the vicinity of the snake to catch it. Just go where you know he lives, set up some traps, and wait. But keeping that snake caught is an entirely different story. Each minute you keep that thing captive is another chance for you to slip up, make a mistake, and have the damn snake end your ass.”
Dominique pursed her lips and stared at nothing in particular. “I’ll think about that.”
“You do that. Well, I’m out. I gotta get some sleep before my head explodes.” I got up and made my way to the door.
“Before you leave,” Dominique said. “Did the girl see your face?”
“Yes,” I said without looking back. “Why?”
“Just curious,” she said. I left her office, went home, and passed out.
CHAPTER 6
Madison tried to escape that night. I got the alert via an email written in cryptic code phrases. I’m not sure what spell she used, but whatever it was left a basketball-sized hole in a wall of her cell. That was about as far as she got before Dominique turned the pain ray on her.
The pain ray is a clever piece of work developed by the Army a few years ago. It emits a low-frequency microwave blast that basically sets your skin on fire — or at least that’s what it feels like. In actuality, the weapon operates at a specific frequency that only affects the surface of the skin and doesn’t do any serious long-term damage. I don’t have first-hand experience with its effects, but I hear it gives you an overwhelming desire to run the hell away from wherever the thing is pointed. Madison didn’t see it coming the first time, and that’s what slowed her down long enough for Dominique’s people to get her re-contained, but we all knew that trick wouldn’t work again. Still, they managed to keep a nightcrafter imprisoned for a whole day. That’s a pretty bi
g accomplishment.
I spent my off day sleeping, eating, and generally recovering from my “hangover”. It takes a while for my body to get back to normal after that much time in the Rift, but by the next morning I was feeling about halfway recovered.
Then Dominique called me.
I saw her name on the caller ID, and for a long moment I seriously considered not answering. Then I remembered that she had goons who would show up at my apartment in five minutes if she really needed me. To her credit, she at least left me alone for almost twenty-four hours.
So I answered the damn call.
“What?” I grumbled into the phone’s speaker.
“We need help with Madison,” Dominique said.
“What kind of help?” I asked.
“She’s getting more resourceful. We almost lost power in the entire detention facility today.”
I sighed. “Honestly, I don’t know how she’s doing it. I’d be pretty helpless if I was in that kind of environment.”
“It would seem we all need to step up our game. I’ll see you here in an hour.”
“Fine.”
I showered and got dressed. I was just about to head out when I stopped for a moment and considered where things were going. I turned out the lights and shut the blinds, blotting out the morning sun. For the first time since capturing Madison, I reached out into the growing darkness and felt the Rift there, strong as ever. In fact, it was even easier to slip into that vast lake of power than before. Things were different. Something had changed, and change in the Rift is rarely a good thing.
I had my suspicions about the cause of the change, but I had to deal with Dominique and Madison first. Everything else would have to wait.
* * *
Madison sat in a room overflowing with brilliant white light that beamed from lamps in the floor and walls. The lamps themselves were placed behind thick panes of bulletproof glass. Madison wore only a skin-tight white leotard made out of a flimsy translucent material that let plenty of light flow through the fabric. It was enough to allow her some modesty, but not much else.