Rogue, Renegade And Rebel (In Her Paranormal Majesty’s Secret Service Book 1)

by Michael Anderle

  “Jennie saw them too,” Lupe commented. “No need to patronize us.”

  “Is this a common occurrence?” Jennie asked. “You’ve come across this more than once?”

  “Actually, no,” Lupe answered. “I’ve been tracking reports of spectral entrapment across the city for years but have never been fortunate enough to find those with the belief and power to harness and perform the ritual.”

  Tanya glared. “Hence why you leeched off our society.”

  “And made it better,” Lupe retorted.

  “How can we possibly know that’s true? What evidence do we have?”

  Again, Lupe turned to Jennie.

  “He’s right,” Jennie agreed. “That’s all I’ll say on the matter.”

  “Anyway,” Lupe continued, “it looks like those who have been entrapped possess a greater well of power inside them, which they can harness and use. Those abilities are rare among the spectral population.”

  Jennie thought back to when she had latched onto Rico and had managed to disappear from even the spectral realm of sight and into complete invisibility.

  If it was really the case that these specters possessed greater strength, then what was Rita’s power? Did she know she had it?

  “If what you’re saying is true, we need to be careful with this knowledge,” Jennie cautioned. “If it came to pass that specters with greater strength than many currently living in the city do actually exist, then there’d be no telling who would be after them and fighting to bring them to their side of the war.”

  “War?” The sandy guy scoffed once more. “What’s she talking about?”

  Jennie chose to ignore him. It wasn’t his fault his entire reality was so shrunken inside his own ego that he couldn’t possibly understand the likelihood of all-out spectral war in New York.

  “Where is the specter?” Jennie asked.

  Tanya led them to a section of the room where a set of stairs led to a raised hexagonal plinth. On the top of a clean white stand was a large chunk of rock, its edges rough and jagged. To Jennie, it looked like a shard of a meteorite that had fallen from space. Tiny pieces of glittering stone embedded in the rock suggested it might have been.

  Jennie walked around the rock, with Lupe copying her on the other side. The rock was dark, and Jennie couldn’t guess at its composition. As she stared into the deep shadows around small crevices, she thought she could see something moving inside, like light swimming beneath a pool of oil.

  “It’s definitely in there,” Jennie confirmed, not wanting to mention that as well as physically being able to see something she could feel a hum of energy in the very marrow of her bones. Something she hadn’t been able to feel at Central Park, given that she and Worthington had been watching from afar, peeking over the top of a hill.

  “How do we proceed?” she asked Lupe.

  Lupe summoned the members of the Spectral Plane around the rock. Jennie made a quick scan for security cameras. She noticed one nearby with a blinking red light, although it was pointed slightly off-center from where they stood.

  They held hands and closed their eyes. Even Baxter joined in, accommodating the space where the sandy-haired man was and made him shiver.

  “Speak the words, Spirit Mother,” Lupe asked Tanya.

  “Oh, so now you want to use me again.”

  “Please try to get along,” Jennie crooned, calling order like a mother calming the friction between her two teenagers.

  “Fine.” Tanya proceeded as she had on that calm New York night. She began humming, and the others followed.

  Although the whole thing felt ridiculous, Jennie eventually joined in.

  Several bystanders paused their tour around the museum, watching as if they were witnessing the beginning of some kind of cultish flash mob.

  “May the spirits of old, from the tombs long gone cold, arise, arise, arise!” Tanya called, her voice booming around the hall.

  Jennie teased open an eye and saw the security camera now pointing their way. She wondered what the security guards were thinking. What did they look like on a grainy black and white camera feed?

  “May the ghouls that were slain, come alive again, arise, arise, arise!”

  Now a small crowd had begun to gather. Several museum guests rifled through their maps to look for any live performances they hadn’t been aware of.

  Jennie closed her eyes again and allowed the humming to fill her.

  Energy leaked through the microscopic pores in its structure, as though the rock had begun to breathe.

  Lupe muttered words under his breath as the group began to mutter, “Arise, arise.”

  Beside Jennie, Baxter copied suit with his eyes closed.

  The rock began to vibrate. As it rattled on its podium, its momentary absence of weight on the pressure pads beneath set off the alarm. A shrill sound filled the room, followed by a voice over the public announcement system requesting that the guests in the Hall of Minerals remain calm, stay in place, and await further instruction from museum personnel.

  Jennie had just enough time to wonder why Tanya and Lupe hadn’t wanted to do this at night time when suddenly the rock began to fracture. It wobbled precariously on its frame as though it were a dragon’s egg hatching.

  The power inside pushed against its boundaries and fought against its entrapment. Jennie felt a surge of power flow out like she hadn’t felt in years, and now the room was filled with a bright white light that rose in a thick column toward the ceiling.

  There was no way to know if it stopped at the ceiling, or if it leaked through to the next floor and on into the open air. All they did know was that the dozens of watchers in the room stared open-mouthed at the column. Other than the humming pulse of power, there was silence among the spectators. When the security guards made it to the doorway, they stopped in their tracks, unable to believe what it was they were seeing.

  Jennie and the Spectral Plane members held hands as the power blew at their hair and made their eyes sting. The light seemed to last an age. A swollen rush of pure energy was birthed from the insides of the rock. It seemed impossible that so much could be contained in so small a structure.

  Then the light extinguished, as suddenly as someone had pushed an “off” switch. The room sank into its usual fluorescent light, which now seemed like the gloom of a chasm compared to the light they had just experienced.

  Jennie broke the chain of hands and rushed onto the plinth. A young girl lay in the center, curled into the fetal position with her eyes closed. Her blonde hair stuck out behind her bonnet, and her frilly white dress bunched and pooled around her.

  Jennie picked the girl up and carried her off the plinth. The witnesses to this spectacle could see nothing more than a woman in her mid-twenties scooping up an invisible object and for some reason carrying it down onto the floor with her.

  People broke their silence and began to whisper. They pointed and stared as the security guards suddenly remembered what they were there for and ran straight toward the group.

  Several cameras flashed, and Jennie’s heart dropped when she saw that a few of the younger guests had been recording some of the action on their cellphones. She turned to locate Baxter and reached out with her power to try something she was sure wouldn’t work. She was pleasantly surprised when it did.

  A burst of spectral energy burst out from her like a pulse. Every electrical device it passed was affected as screens buzzed with static and live feeds broke and lost their signal.

  As the visitors looked at their devices in confusion, the guards caught up with the group. They stopped in front of Jennie and placed their hands out, attempting to stop her in her tracks.

  Jennie, still holding the young girl in her arms, looked back toward the others, and something caught her eye.

  The lead guard, a woman with a thick neck and piercing green eyes, stopped in front of Jennie. “Ma’am, you need to come with us and explain exactly what went on here.”

  “I’m afraid that won’t
be possible,” Jennie told her. “Not only will you not be able to catch us, but you also won’t believe me if I told you what just happened.”

  Before the guard could take in what Jennie had said, she spun on her heel and ran toward the Spectral Plane team. She roared at them to follow her as she passed them, and they did it without question.

  They made it around the plinth and through a thin section of the exhibit, squeezing between startled visitors who complained but made no attempt to stop them. The guards were hot on their heels but hadn’t expected this sudden turn.

  A slight turn to the right, and now Jennie was aimed at the emergency door. She sprinted headlong toward the double doors and made no attempt to use the bar to open it. Instead, she lowered her head and charged straight through the wall, latching onto Baxter at just the right moment to become immaterial.

  She heard the cries of the Spectral Plane people before she made it through, and quickly turned. An electric combination lock guarded the door on this side. Jennie drew from Baxter again and placed a palm on the keypad, then sent a small burst of energy through to scramble the circuits, and the doors clicked.

  A moment later, the others tumbled through since their weight had already been against the door as they attempted to shoulder-barge through.

  “Get up,” Jennie barked at Lupe as she threw the doors shut behind them.

  They sprinted along a back corridor and broke through another set of emergency doors that opened to the outside.

  The members of the Spectral Plane whooped and laughed as they emerged into the sunshine and sprinted across the lawn toward the surrounding city.

  Jennie, on the other hand, kept her composure. She wondered who on earth this child was, and what the hell she was going to do with her.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Central Park, New York City

  “I still don’t see why we couldn’t have waited until night time.”

  Jennie was out of breath. Not only had they run non-stop into the sanctuary of Central Park and lost themselves on the thick trails of the Ramble, but she had also carried a specter with her who must have weighed at least sixty pounds.

  Not that anyone other than Baxter and Lupe could see the girl. To the others, she looked like a lunatic pretending to carry her imaginary friend. The only one of the Spectral Plane who couldn’t see specters but contained an ounce of intrigue and excitement was Tanya, who had continually shifted her gaze to Jennie as they’d run into the trees.

  “You think security is tight in the daytime, you should see it at night,” Lupe told them. “There’d be no way we could get that close to the rock after hours. They’ve got guards and motion sensors, not to mention that our guys—”

  “My guys,” Tanya clarified.

  Lupe shot Tanya a sharp look. “Okay, Tanya’s guys can’t float through walls.”

  “Yeah, what the hell was that?” Erik stared at Jennie as if he were seeing her through new eyes. “You…you melted through that wall. That should be impossible.”

  “It was incredible,” Tanya murmured in awe.

  Jennie shrugged off their comments, used to mortals becoming dazzled by her powers when she used them in public. To her, it was nothing new. “Try living with this gift for over a century.”

  Jennie listened to the world around her, the silence letting her know they were safe enough to stop for a moment. Leaves rustled, and the sounds of the park filtered around them. Creatures ran in the undergrowth, and somewhere far off, a dog barked.

  Jennie placed the girl on the ground. Her eyes fluttered as if she were in the middle of a dream. Jennie pushed a lock of hair from her face and watched her for a moment.

  She was young, maybe seven or eight years old. Her frilly white dress and bonnet suggested she had been a child in the 1800s.

  Older than me, then.

  Her face was flawless, with porcelain skin and a beauty mark on her upper lip. Jennie wondered what circumstances could have led to this girl finding herself trapped inside a rock for almost two centuries.

  “What’s she doing?” Erik whispered.

  Tanya tiptoed closer, her eyes brimming with excitement. Her hands were clasped beneath her chin as she stared at the empty space where Jennie now crouched.

  “Is that…them?” Tanya breathed. “There’s really something there? A real specter?”

  Jennie nodded.

  “Oh. My. Gosh!” Tanya held herself back from squealing. “Can you describe them? What are they? When are they from?”

  Lupe placed a hand on Tanya’s shoulder. “Give Jennie some space. She is sleeping.”

  “‘She?’”

  Lupe nodded but said nothing.

  Jennie wondered how best to wake the girl. She was clearly in the middle of a deep slumber that neither being freed from the rock or being carried through the park at high speed could break. She imagined that if everything which had just happened to this poor girl had happened to her, her adrenaline would be running so high she wouldn’t be able to sleep for days.

  Police sirens blared somewhere in the distance. Everyone raised their heads and listened, trying to determine the direction of the sound.

  “Come on,” Lupe told Jennie. “We are not safe here.”

  Jennie looked down at the girl and sighed. Although technically immaterial, the girl’s weight was beginning to tire her. She bent to scoop the girl back up but felt a tap on her shoulder.

  “Let me.” Baxter leaned down, and more delicately than Jennie could have expected from someone so big, picked the girl up and cradled her in his arms. He smiled at Jennie. “Did you know you’re statistically a hundred percent more likely to be caught by the cops than a specter is?”

  Jennie grinned. “As a matter of fact, I did. Why do you ask?”

  Baxter nodded toward the sound of sirens. “I suggest you get your ass in gear and run. I’ll be right behind you.”

  Jennie laughed and took off after the others.

  Midtown Manhattan, New York City

  The headquarters of the mortal faction of the Spectral Plane was abuzz with excitement.

  The two dozen or so followers of the Spirit Mother, Tanya, couldn’t believe the things they’d heard.

  They had eagerly followed as Jennie led Baxter through the rundown converted office space and into Tanya’s personal library, all craning to try and get a look at the specter in their midst.

  Jennie laughed at the fact that none of them were looking in the right direction. Tanya must have told them all something about Jennie’s nature because their eyes were fixed on her rather than the giant behind her actually carrying the girl.

  Lupe rolled his eyes and grinned. A conduit himself, he could see Baxter and the girl as clear as he could see the hundreds of specters who loitered in the hidden passages of the New York City subway.

  “Okay, okay, give the woman some breathing room,” Lupe commanded, much to the disdain of the several members of the order who now crammed themselves through the door of the library. When several of them stood steadfast, Lupe shouted, “Out! Out!”

  They grumbled and glared at Lupe. They knew about the betrayal he had committed to their order, unable to understand, as Jennie did, that Lupe had performed exactly as he had promised, and the order now had their own spectral following, one that had grown large enough to threaten the queen’s rule over the city.

  It was only after Tanya repeated Lupe’s orders that they reluctantly ducked out of the room and closed the door behind them. Jennie was sure she could still hear them shuffling around behind the wood.

  “Where is she?” Tanya asked, whirling around the room to any possible location they may place a specter.

  Jennie pointed to the couch, where Baxter now sat at the edge and watched over the girl.

  Tanya squealed excitedly. “Can you describe her?”

  Jennie left that task to Lupe while she checked her phone.

  He grumbled a manner of non-too-descriptive phrases such as “blonde” and “young” while
Jennie scrolled through her browser and looked for anything which may have been published that would make her or those of the Spectral Plane identifiable to the authorities.

  She didn’t have to look far to find several videos on YouTube of the events in the museum. Each had their own unique angle, though luckily, the majority of the videos only showed the silhouetted backs of their heads as the column of light exploded.

  Even that was only for a few seconds before the surge of power was so great that static filled the screen for a few seconds.

  There only appeared to be one video that caught the group as they were running, but it had been posted by someone whose phone camera had such a low resolution their faces were blurry.

  Thank God for small miracles.

  There were also a few blog posts and some posts on social media. Mostly from stunned witnesses who claimed things like, “Exploding light at museum! What the hell?” and, “Casual day in Rockland turned into performance art with high-tech beams? Go AMNH!”

  Satisfied there wasn’t anything on the world wide web that might be incriminating against her, Jennie made a note to be considerably more careful in the city. She pocketed her phone and tuned back in to Lupe’s description of the girl.

  “What’s she wearing?” Tanya asked, frustration finally overtaking her.

  Lupe threw his hands up. “Er, it’s kind of white, I guess. Maybe cream. With frills?”

  Tanya shook her head. “Details, Lupe! Is it a dress? Pants? A skirt? What kind of neckline? Does it have a wrap? A shawl? The shoes? What kind of shoes is she wearing? Is she wearing shoes? What about jewelry, and socks, and gloves, sleeves? I need details. Paint me a picture!”

  Lupe’s shoulders slumped.

  Baxter doubled over, slapping his leg as he laughed. Lupe turned to Jennie for help.

  She described the young girl to a T, and it only took her a few seconds. When she was finished, Tanya seemed to finally relax, satisfied with the answer she had given.

  “So, what’s a prepubescent girl doing trapped in a rock?” Tanya asked.