Elemental Shadows (24 page)

I
dove at Crwys as the Shadow blurred and ran toward him. It brushed my arm and froze my skin as Crwys and I went down between the fireplace hearth and the coffee table at my dad's feet.
 

"Mother fucker," Crwys said as he sat up and looked around the room. "We know it's you Ronald. You're in the Hawthorne hard drive."
 

"Of course it's me," came a computer-generated voice through the speakers. "But I'm Soul Machine now. I am a soul, in the machine!" He laughed again.
 

"Why did you kill my parents?" I stood, slapping at Crwys's hands trying to keep me on the floor.
 

"Oh…they killed themselves. It was easy to drive your dad insane. He was already halfway there, Samantha. I never knew Witches were real until I started searching for whatever it was that hacked my machine. It left no footprint. No signature. Not even an IP. Nothing."
 

"That was Ivan."
 

"Yes…" The Shadow reappeared on the back wall. It looked like it did that day in Ina's kitchen. Like a man with no detail. Except it was much, much shorter. Its legs were truncated, a third the length of its arms. Crwys stood and we both faced it. "Ivan. But I didn't find him till he revealed himself, and by then I knew about the Malleus Maleficarum. The real deal. A book that could give me back my body."
 

Crwys made a rude noise. "That's not going to happen, Ron. Your body is dead. You neglected it."
 

"I AM SOUL MACHINE!"
 

I narrowed my eyes and snarled at the wall image. "You are nothing but a piece of forgotten shit, you son of a bitch. You killed three men trying to get out of the machine, Ron. You thought those old men were your ticket. Realized you were pretty much pointless in there so you slaughtered three more innocent lives. You're sick. You should be put down. Erased like erroneous data. Garbage in, garbage…
out
."
 

The shadow came at me. I fired off a few rounds, but bullets couldn't hit Shadows but they made nice holes on the opposite wall, smashing one of Pauline's paintings.
 

Bullets might not be able to strike the Shadow, but he was solid enough to shove me against the fireplace and knock the wind out of me. I fell to the floor and when Crwys tried to help me up, the Shadow knocked him backwards, crashing into the TV and onto the floor.
 

Before I could right myself, something grabbed me around the neck and squeezed. I looked to see the Shadow, no longer a two dimensional aberration against a wall, but three dimensional and choking the shit out of me. I grabbed at my neck as I scrambled on the ground, trying to kick the thing in the back. But it wasn't solid! I couldn't put my fingers around anything and my knees came up and through the thing.
 

Again I cried out for my Elementals. I tried to summon my Spirit. They hadn't taken that! But it wasn't answering. It was too weak and needed the other Elements to fully form. I was helpless and losing my vision as I gasped for breath.
 

The Hammer pulsed once against my chest. I felt it ripple out through the house and under my back. The world turned red and I thought it was blood over my eyes. But it sparkled and glittered as it lowered a filter over my vision. I looked through it at the Shadow and saw a kid. A skinny, terrified, insane child filled with rage and anger. I saw the make up of his soul as it glittered bright and pure, and then began to decay. Dark, rotting patches of it fell away and I knew I was watching what was, to what it was becoming.
 

The warnings about Shadow People and what they were. Bundles of emotions. A forgotten son. Left to die by parents who didn't even bother to call while they were off vacationing. A kid that never fit in. A kid that never had power, until today.
 

And then I saw my dad through the Shadow's eyes. I saw him yelling and screaming at something Pauline couldn't see. I saw him grab the knife and try to stab at it—over and over until he realized he'd stabbed the nurse. Pauline tried to take the knife and he stabbed her too. She staggered away to the door, barely making it to the couch before she fell to the ground.
 

I watched as light came back to my dad's eyes and he was himself in those last seconds as he realized what he'd done. Despair washed over him as he sat in that chair and stabbed himself until he couldn't pull the knife back out.
 

And through it all I heard the Shadow's laughter.
 

Laughter at horror. Laughter at what it had done. A final revenge against the Witch that took the children from him. Oh yes…he'd had plans for those children once he figured out how to control them. Manipulate them.
 

And then I took a long hard look at the Shadows legs and saw the bloody stumps of where my Gnome's axe and removed its shins and feet. The thing was in pain.
 

And it wanted to cause pain.
 

I saw it all in seconds as the Hammer's power, a power that now settled inside my blood, showed me what I could do. It instructed me on how I could easily, so…very easily…take the Shadow down to its base elements. I reached up and with a single touch, made it disappear. I heard Ronald Kennett's screams as he felt every painful, agonizing separation of every molecule of his body. The body is made up of billions of pieces, an infinite universe.
 

He would be screaming for a very, very long time.
 

I saw my father's body. He was no longer there. The vessel began its decay. I sat up and reached out for it. Touched my father's knee. Bid my creator a farewell as it disintegrated. I pushed up and touched the chair. That too fell away and then Pauline's body vanished. The nurse's body. I could see the make up of every thing in the room, the house, the yard, and the neighborhood. I could erase the place of my greatest pain!
 

There would be nothing!
 

No reminder of where my father died! No house to stand and suffer through another family. I could just banish it all.
 

A movement into doorway caught my attention. At first I thought it was Grey. Beautiful Grey. I beckoned her to join me. We could both disappear together in this red haze of peace. But it wasn't my wolf. It was a woman, dressed in a dated business suit, with dark hair and a familiar face. She came to me, held out her hand and spoke to me.
 

"Let it go, Sam. You can control it."

I didn't know what she meant. Control what?
 

"Sam, if you don't stop. If you don't use your Spirit to cap the power, it will destroy you, me, Crwys, everyone. Please…stop."
 

Spirit. I had called upon Spirit. But it wasn't strong enough. Until I summoned it again. The red haze faded as the glitter dimmed. It didn't want to do that.
 

An angel came into view. He was magnificent, with his golden skin, red amber eyes and leather wings. He wore nothing as he held his hand out to me.
 

Come back.
 

Was this my Spirit?
 

And then it was gone. A blink. A breath. A gasp. A stumble. A reawakening of color and smell. Of sound and taste. I stumbled and fell into Crwys's arms. He stood where the angel had been and his eyes were the same.
 

"Samantha," he said as he looked into my eyes. "I've been alive for a very, very long time. But you are the first human who has ever scared the hell out of me."
 

I shivered at him. I was cold. Wind brushed my hair against my cheek and I looked around the living room.

But there was no living room. No house.
 

We were standing in an empty lot.
 

We need to go. The neighbors are going to start looking out their windows.
 

"I know." Crwys picked my guns up off the pine straw ground and put his hands on my shoulders. "Are you with me, Sam?"

"Where…where is dad's house?" I looked around. I recognized the lot. I knew the house across the street. I was shaking now, but not from cold. "Crwys…where is my dad's God damn house?"
 

Grey barked.
 

But I heard,
Get her in the car!
 

I looked at my familiar. I looked at the lot as Crwys led me away to his car. We piled back in and he urged me to put on my seat belt as he backed the car out of the concrete drive, the only thing left of what had once been my father's house. He turned the car down a side road as I heard sirens behind us. I turned to see cop cars arriving.
 

"I did that," I turned back around. "I remember…Kennett's dead."
 

"Kennett is in hell. A hell you put him in," Crwys glanced at me. "I can't say I'm sad about it."
 

"I…" with a look at my hands I stumbled over the memories. "I touched my dad and Pauline."
 

"Sam…I think what just happened, is what all the lessons your people taught you about Arcane Magic is for."
 

I leaned back in the seat. Pressed myself into the vinyl cushion.
Arcane Magic will change you. It will take things from you. Arcane Magic doesn't belong in this world.
 

It was all true. This was what I'd been warned about. I'd obliterated my father's house, his body, Pauline's body, the nurse, and everything in it. And I could remember the cold, calculating method I'd used to do it. I hadn't felt anything. Except…satisfaction.
 

I grabbed at the USB around my neck, but the necklace wasn't there. I looked around the car and grabbed at the dashboard. "We have to go back. The Hammer came off the chain. It's not around my neck."
 

But he didn't turn around. He glanced at me and shook his head. "It didn't fall off, Sam. It's still there."
 

I put my hands to my chest. But there was nothing there.
 

He pointed to the rear view mirror.
 

I pulled the mirror down to look as I leaned over.
 

There…in the center of my chest was a tattoo of a combined symbol, the hermetic representations of the elements, all surrounded by a circle. "What…the hell is this?"
 

"I don't know, Sam," he looked straight ahead. "I just don't god damn know."
 

I
went crazy for a little while. Not like straight-jacket crazy. This was something that happened inside. I avoided everyone for a few weeks. I spent Yule alone in my apartment. Crwys kept Grey and I closed the shop. He offered to pay the rent and utilities until I got my shit together.
 

But I wasn't sure that was ever going to happen.
 

Ivan called every day. He left me vlogs in my email. Kyle sent me hand-written letters and I could see the magic as it swirled around each one. They were reaching out.
 

I was pulling back.
 

Crwys was the only one that really left me alone. He didn't visit or write. But I had the feeling he was there.
 

I tried to have the tattoo removed. But nothing the artist did worked.
 

I even poured acid over it.
 

It burned like holy hell and when I finally recovered from that pain, it was still there. Not a mark on me.
 

I followed the news. Arden Vervain was exonerated of all charges, and even got an apology. Ronald Kennett's death was ruled a tragic accident and the deaths of the three Elders…were a mystery. I was pretty sure they were filed under cold case and were forgotten by New Year's.
 

Robin finally called New Year's Eve. Apologized for being distant and asked about my dad's disappearance. The house and the two elderly people that lived there made national news. Funny how they never tried to contact me. I thought maybe Arden, Crwys or even Parliament had something to do with that.
 

We decided to put our relationship on hold. He was busy trying to establish a new life for the girls. I could hear how happy he was that Kathy had been found. We admitted we loved one another and promised to talk again soon.