And the dark came.
* * * * *
Amber groaned as she examined the sky.
“I do not need this,” she shouted to the uncaring universe, ashamed to hear the whine in her voice, “I’m too fucking tired for games tonight.”
Then she looked around and coughed. The sound echoed.
The last time she was here she hadn’t been able to make a sound. Something had changed.
It was the same dreamscape for the third night in a row. Well, her enemy was consistent. She scanned the horizon. So far, no wolves. Counting that as a good thing Amber started walking, the dust her feet disturbed rising and falling in noiseless puffs.
The silence shattered as a distant wolf howled. She spun, but there was nothing to see. No posing. No runners. The howls came again and she realized that they were going away from her. Amber ran toward the sound, the superheated air tearing at her lungs. More wolves cried out and Amber heard a voice cursing. A human voice. She topped a rise and crouched behind a pile of rocks.
The wolves had brought down their prey. A man, long and thin and familiar lay sprawled on the stone while the lead bitch prowled around his body. Karl Benn’s naked body writhed on the heated stone as the wolves butted against his body, growling and snapping.
Amber’s ears buzzed and her skin itched. She could feel power rising, higher, sharper but she was not the one calling it.
It was being called from her!
Then her strength fled, all the energy she’d gathered during the day, all the strength Smoke donated, gone. The pain drove her to the ground, her breasts scraping across the rough stone and she lay, gasping and helpless.
Karl shrieked again, drowning out Amber’s cry as the Elemental energy was torn from her. She felt it rush from her and tried to catch it, pull it back. It slipped through her psychic fingers pouring into Karl. Through Karl. Through and away.
Amber grabbed a little personal energy, wrapped it around her spirit, and prepared to ride out the storm. On the rocks before her she saw Karl writhing. Even in the strange light of this nightmare his color was bad. His breathing was ragged. His hands clawed at his chest, then he spasmed, his left arm contracted and pressed against his chest, then his whole body bowed up as he cried out and collapsed.
The prowling wolves stopped their howls and sniffed at him. The lead bitch ceased her dance and lowered her muzzle to his contorted face. Amber gasped, pressing herself to the stone. The last person she’d seen with that face was a co-worker in the grip of a heart attack.
* * * * *
She woke panting and turned her head just enough to see the glowing numbers of the alarm clock: 5:16 a.m.
Her eyes drifted shut and she lay waiting for the pain to ebb. Elemental energy had torn through her system at speed. Torn through and torn out and left her channels abraded. If what she’d seen in the nightmare-scape was real, it wasn’t Karl doing it. She’d already come to the conclusion he was a victim; now she knew he hadn’t started this mess. He was well and truly caught. Just like her.
And … oh, my God, she’d forgotten.
Karl! Uncaring of the damage and not worrying about being polite, she hauled in Elemental energy until she could drag herself to her feet. Dressed and running through the house she skidded to a halt next to the house phone and clung to the wall.
“Damn, damn. Damn.”
She couldn’t call the ambulance for him. She didn’t know where he lived.
Somewhere in Laurenville, Karl was having a heart attack and she couldn’t call for help. She didn’t know where to send help.
She had to find him. There might be only minutes, seconds before he died. Closing her eyes she felt for the web, the link between them, and fed a little Elemental energy down hoping it would reach him. She stumbled into the hall and grabbed the wall to stay upright.
“Smoke! Smoke! Guys! I need you. Now! Now! Now!”
Amber drove, or rather flew the Aztec down the road to Laurenville. Smoke clung to the passenger side door as they swung through a series of turns.
“I don’t know what you think you’re going to achieve,” he said calmly. “Are you going to knock on every door in Laurenville? What if he lives in another town?”
“We’re going to the bookstore,” said Amber, tightening her grip on the steering wheel. “If he’s half as efficient as I think he is, he’s included his own home address in his list of employees and it will be on his computer. We’ll hit the bookstore then call the ambulance. Send it to his house.”
“How are you going to exp …?”
“Please, Smoke, I don’t know and right now I don’t care. He’s dying.”
“So?”
Amber flashed a glance toward her cousin then scowled and returned her attention to the road. “He isn’t the villain of the piece. He’s one of the victims.”
“You’re sure of this?”
“You didn’t see what I saw on … this dreamscape I’ve been seeing since I got caught by the web. He … they …” She pulled into the parking lot and scrambled out of the car. “They were eating his spirit, his life force. You don’t do that to the chief bad guy, okay?”
“Fine.” Smoke followed her out of the car; Lightning, Rust, and Manny bailed out of the rear seat. “Boys, go around back. See if you can find a door with no alarm.”
“We don’t have time to be careful,” cried Amber.
“You don’t get to tell me about time or careful,” snarled Smoke. “We already know what happens to you when you go off unprepared. Or are you going to tell me that the web you’ve gotten tangled in is all a joke?”
Amber sighed and clutched her fan in her hand. “Sorry, Smoke.”
“Smoke,” shouted Lightning, banged on the bookstore window. “We can see him. He’s on a camp bed.”
They ran to join Lightning who was leaning both hands on the large window on the side of the building. They could see the end of a camp bed positioned between two of the tall free standing bookcases and Karl slumped, half on half off, tangled in the blankets.
“Is he breathing? Can you see?” asked Amber, taking up the position beside Lightning.
“No. I can’t tell. Can’t see his chest.”
“Damn it. We have to get in.”
“No setting off the alarms,” said Smoke.
“I’ll do it,” said Lightning. “I sent away for a lock pick kit.”
“Are you nuts? Do you think this store has some dinky, stupid easy-to-pick lock? There should be a computerized security …” Amber paused. “Where the hell is the back door?”
“We could call the police,” suggested Manny. “Tell them we can see him through the window and we think he’s sick?”
“And how would we explain being here before six in the morning?” asked Smoke. “Are we waiting for coffee?”
“Besides,” said Amber, ducking around to the rear of the building. “He doesn’t look sick. He looks like he’s fallen out of bed. They won’t do anything. Yes! Look. A programmed keyless system.”
“Oh, damn,” said Lightning and tucked his lock picks away.
“Can you get into this?” demanded Smoke.
“Sure.”
“How? Do you have a computer dweeb’s master code or something?” asked Smoke.
“Nah,” said Amber pulling out her cell phone, “depending on how predictable this guy is there are four common numbers people use when they have a four, six, or eight-number code to remember.”
“And?” prompted Smoke.
“And the most common is their birthdate.” She slid her finger over the flat screen and connected to the internet. After a few minutes search she located Karl Benn’s social media page and there, nice and convenient, was his birthdate.
She compared the numbers to the wear areas on the keypad. “Yes, look, his birthday is ten, eleven, and the number one on the pad is almost worn away.”
She tapped in the code and twisted the handle; then they all charged into the store. Smoke managed to reach the fall
en man first. Karl was sprawled on the narrow fold-out bed, one arm twisted up across his chest. His lips were blue and his face covered in perspiration. Smoke pressed two stubby fingers to the side of his neck and let out a sigh of relief.
“He has a pulse and he’s breathing,” said Smoke, “but God, his color is awful.”
Amber touched her own fingers to his throat. Relief weakened her legs, and she sank down beside him when she felt a steady beat. She brushed the sweaty curls back off his forehead, let a little of the borrowed strength leak from her to him. Not too much. His weakened system couldn’t take much.
“Stay with us, Karl,” she whispered as she dialed 911.
“But the cops?” cried Rust. “How do we explain being in here?”
“Obviously, we couldn’t have gotten in unless we were friends enough for him to give us his passcode. Let them think I came over for some midnight nookie. Who cares? And I’m going to talk to him before the cops ask questions.” Her face tightened. “He needs help. They almost killed him last night.”
“With four friends? Kinky,” said Lightning and Rust hit him.
“So? You guys hit the bricks before the cops arrive.”
“They who?” demanded Smoke.
“The wolves. The wolves in that dream. They were feeding on him. Feeding on me and thousands of others. And it has got to stop.”
Amber paused at the hospital room door peering through a tiny window. Wires, tubes, and who knew what else were coming out of Karl. His face was pale, haggard, but with the oxygen being given to him, his lips were no longer a ghastly shade of blue. Amber swallowed down rising nausea and forced a smile onto her face. He did look better than a few hours ago. Then again, a few hours ago she’d thought he was dead.
She’d spent hours pacing the ICU waiting room floor, hoping she’d been in time. And fighting guilt. She believed he wasn’t the bad guy, but what happened to Karl in the nightmare was a cruel way to have it proven.
“Are you sure I can’t see him? Speak to him?” she asked the nurse on duty for the fourth time that day.
“Have you become his family since this morning?” asked the nurse. She was professionally sympathetic and no doubt reassuring to the families, but she annoyed the heck out of Amber.
“You mean have I married him since you last asked? No.”
“Then, no, we can’t let you in.”
Amber waited until the nurse gathered her equipment together and went on to her next patient. There was nothing for it. She couldn’t let Karl talk to anyone before she talked to him. She needed to find out exactly what was going on with the bookstore, with the web, and with the attack this morning. And she had to make sure he didn’t complain about her breaking into his store.
Police. Good when needed, inconvenient when not.
She’d needed to do two Elemental energy draws since the attack. One to get on her feet and out of the house and again while waiting for the ambulance. She was so tired she could feel her heart missing a beat here and there. She’d drawn mostly from Earth, directing energy to healing. Karl didn’t have that ability.
The nurse had her back turned, finally. Amber took a little energy from Air and closed her eyes as she cast her spell. If the nurse was sufficiently busy, sufficiently distracted the see-me-not spell that Amber had created for being ignored by police while driving might just get her into Karl’s room. It didn’t make her invisible, just not important.
His head turned as soon as she entered and he blinked at her vaguely. It took a few moments before his mind focused and his eyes became alert. He scowled and clenched his hand on the sheets reaching vainly for the nurse call button that was just inches away.
“We meet again,” said Amber.
The machines over his head registered a jump in heartbeat as she walked toward him.
“Are hospital rooms going to be the equivalent of ‘our song’?” he asked, his voice barely a whisper.
She idly began arranging flowers on his bedside table. If anyone except that nurse walked by she now had established her right to be in this room.
“I’m hoping not. I don’t like hospitals that much.” Amber snorted and smiled. “Different at least, I suppose.”
“They tell me that you called the ambulance this time,” said Karl, “Mind if I ask what the hell you were doing in my shop at that hour?”
“I don’t mind at all. I knew you’d had a heart attack while being drained of psychic and life energy and I was trying to find out where you lived. Your shop was the logical place to start. How was I to know that you actually lived in the store? Why are you sleeping in your store, by the way? Are book thieves rife in the Poconos?”
Karl frowned and shook his head.
“I moved into the shop when I first bought it, to save money. And when the store didn’t take off I stayed there for the same reason. But I don’t understand how you knew I was sick.”
“We shared a nightmare,” said Amber, patiently seating herself in the visitor’s chair. “I was drawn in, probably by the web bonds we share and I saw you collapse.”
Karl stared at her as if she’d grown a second head and neither of them had a brain.
“What the hell are you talking about?”
He listened, close-mouthed as Amber described the massive web on the store and the Ethereal Planes, the strands that bound him and her, and the nightmare wolf attack.
“Orange sky and purple rocks. The drugs you’re taking don’t agree with you,” said Karl disgustedly and lay back against his pillows, turning his face away.
“You don’t remember?” demanded Amber, fists on hips. “You were on your back surrounded by a pack of wolves that were killing you and you don’t remember?”
“No, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“You didn’t wake up at five sixteen this morning feeling like every member of the World Wide Wrestling League had body slammed you to the ground? And yesterday? The day before?”
Karl’s eyes opened, pale and bloodshot. He pulled the oxygen cannula away from his nose and sat up.
“Five sixteen?” he asked, suddenly alert.
“Yeah,” Amber stepped back, squelching her temper and leaned against the bedside table. “You know what I’m talking about now?”
“No. This can’t be right,” Karl ran his fingers through his tangled curls and shook his head. “That is, yes, I wake up every morning at that time. Exactly five sixteen. Have for years. Don’t need an alarm clock.”
“How many years?”
“Since college,” he stared off toward the window.
“You can’t have gone through that sort of energy drain every morning for years,” murmured Amber. “Not and survive.”
“I don’t know about energy drain,” said Karl thoughtfully. “I wake up feeling like I’ve run a marathon. Weak, shaking. Sometimes there’s blood on the sheets and scratches on my feet.” He gave Amber a suspicious look. “You’re saying that magic is doing this.”
“Exactly.”
“Get out!”
“No, really.” She smiled, relieved he finally understood.
“I mean, get out!” Karl shouted. “Get out of this room. Take your insane ideas and get away from me. I will not have a spirit channeling, mother earther, macrobiotic, rebirthing witch trying to heal my inner child, okay? I want you out.”
Amber stood and glared down at him. She only had minutes, seconds, before the nurses came in response to his shout. She crossed to the bed and leaned down over him.
“You and I have a problem, Mister Benn. A couple of days ago I walked up to your bookstore, touched the door, and I was attacked.”
“Now listen …”
“You listen,” Amber’s face flushed. “I was attacked magically. Something … something attached itself to me. Something that came from your store. All of my strength left me. You saw me before they took me to the hospital. I was drained. It took hours for me to recover. Since then I’ve been investigating this attack and I’ve seen so
me things that you will not believe unless you see them for yourself.”
Karl raised his pale face to hers and snarled. “I don’t trust witches. From my experience they are one step down from politicians, con artists, and thieves. I’m going to be very hard to convince,” He stabbed a finger at Amber. “If it turns out that you’re running a con, then you’re not going to enjoy the legal repercussions of this. I will find a crime to accuse you of and I will pursue you until I run out of money or legal means.”
Amber shrugged, entirely unimpressed.
“Magic’s not against the law … anymore,” she said. “And it would be a little hard to prove that I benefited in any way from being attacked by a big black web that no one else can see. So feel free to go right ahead and try. In the meantime, you’ve got to come with me.”
“Where?”
“To my aunt’s home. I have to do some magic … show you.”
“No magic. I will not …”
Amber leaned close and growled in a tone she’d learned from Smoke – a sound that went straight to the lizard brain and spoke to the deepest, primal fears.
“Karl, this morning someone took your strength until your heart failed. Do you hear me? Your heart stopped. I felt it happen. I shared that pain. The doctors told me and I’m sure they told you that your blood chemistry says you had a heart attack. They’ve been working you up all day and with all their medical tests they can’t find what’s wrong. No blocked blood vessels, no plaque. No predisposing factors. They have no idea why you have all the symptoms but actually didn’t have a medical reason to have one. They certainly can’t help you. A few more mornings like this one and you will be dead. Don’t you want to find out why? And who?” She paused to catch her breath. Damn it, the energy pulls should be holding her longer. Why was she so damned weak? “If you want to live you have to let me investigate this.”
Karl threw off his sheets and swung his feet to the floor. Amber thought about reaching to help him but didn’t. He wouldn’t have let her; and in her current state they’d both end up on the floor.
“If you’re setting me up for something,” he said. “Remember, there’s no hole deep enough or mountain high enough for you to hide from me.”
First Destroy All Giant Monsters (The World Wide Witches Research Association) Page 14