Spring Tide Page 26

  “Like it?”

  “That was wicked!” I slapped his leg. “I knew it! You can talk to fish!”

  “I can’t talk to fish. Put your hand out, catch one.”

  I did and a small blue fish leapt up and went through my palm. I didn’t feel anything. Another fish flowed through my hand and disappeared. Impossible. The surface of the water was untouched, no sound or ellipse showing reentry. It’s not real. He envisioned it?

  I closed my eyes and drew the picture. I opened them and saw a clear sky and a huge, harvest moon. He extinguished his light and smiled. The moonlight soaked us in its blush, glinting off his hair and skin amid a sea of liquid honey.

  “Damn, you’re a quick study.” He leaned to me and barely touched his lips to mine. “Look down.”

  Sharks circled. Tips of thick dorsal fins arced up and down slowly, too slowly. My mind conjured the image of small black eyes, rows of jagged teeth, and horrible dismemberment. I held my breath and instinctively my fingers straightened. Laughing hard, he put his hand over mine and the sharks went back to the depths. After spasms of terror subsided, I splashed him. Right then, I understood that the squadrons of jellyfish I’d seen all summer were most likely illusions and I splashed him again.

  We paddled in and lost the wetsuits.

  He wrapped two towels around my shoulders and rubbed my terry-clad arms. “I wanted to show you there are aspects of magic that aren’t scary or combative. I’ve been practicing that little show for months. I’m decent at illusions of fish and sea birds, probably ’cause I’ve been around them so much. I can’t really do anything else. It’s not my thing.”

  “The sharks were a nice touch. Cardiac arrest isn’t scary at all.”

  “You’re a force. I’m amazed you’re still holding your illusion.” He glanced up at the sky. “Most of us can’t maintain a vision for so long. How’re you keeping your concentration?”

  I snapped my fingers and the clicking sound broke the lock in my mind that had been sustaining the moon above us. It disappeared and we were standing on horizontal rows of light coming through the shutters from inside.

  With a quick thought, the golden moon reappeared. I mentally arranged the order of the images and let it happen. Thousands of rose petals in every color cascaded from the sky like snow, enveloping the deck in a blizzard of fantasy. But before the petals touched the stone, a whirlwind captured them. They swirled around our bodies and it seemed so real that I got goose bumps. The current rose above us, dispensing the colored ovals across the sky. When they were high over the house, each petal became a shimmering, silver moth that zigzagged the moon until it turned into a falling star.

  I snapped my fingers and we were in lamplight again. “Well, that was girly. Hold up.”

  Three pink unicorns galloped across the deck, jumped the pool, and disappeared.

  I chuckled. “There we go, that’s more like it. I’ll think of something cooler next time like walruses playing trombones.”

  “That was awesome! Not gonna comment on the unicorns. Illusions may be your gift.”

  I shoved his shoulder. “I thought my gift was to rock your world.”

  “It’s on, beautiful.”

  “Was it good?”

  “More like outstanding. I really thought I felt a breeze.”

  “Purpose?”

  “Julia says that considering our experiences, illusions are a little vacation for us, a short break from the reality of, well, caring—from seeing people suffer and trying to figure out how to best help them. Illusions give us happiness. We can create what we want to see, if only for a few seconds or, in your case, minutes.”

  He kissed my cheek, his hands moving up and down my back. Somehow I had found my way to the water, to him and this world, riding out the ebb and flow of our relationship. He’d never let anyone take me from him.

  “I love you,” I whispered.

  “I will always love you.”

  Sparkles of blue mixed with sparkles of green in his eyes. I’d seen it before but had never understood that the green was the reflection of the magic burgeoning within me.

  Over the next week, he talked to me the way Troy did, hypnotizing me. He wanted me to reject his voice from the first syllable that entered my ears. It was a problematic and difficult request because my ears and brain were forged together, unlike most people’s. He’d use “the voice” at odd times, when I was knitting or grooving or brushing my teeth. When he saw that I was affected, he’d slap me on the back or poke me to snap me out of it. If that wasn’t enough fun for him, he’d throw his light in my eyes.

  _______

  He was describing the beaches of California as Utopian, a promised land for surfers, warm water south and cold water north. That morning’s speech was his third installment in two days for why we should move there.

  “Sounds like a lot of time in the car checkin’ the waves. Dude, you don’t understand what this’ll do to my mom. She’ll think I’m caught up in first love, am making the same mistake … it’ll kill her.”

  “You tell her we’re visiting my friends for a couple of weeks. A month later, you have her up for a few days and tell her how much you like California, that you want to enroll in classes. A year down the road, she’ll see how happy we are together. You can visit her in Austin as often as you want, but we gotta go.”

  “But it’s all a lie.” I mashed my face with my hands. “We shouldn’t go. We can’t. No. Not doin’ it.”

  “Are you worried about being somewhere new or—?”

  “It’s not that. I just really think we shouldn’t go. I know we shouldn’t go. Besides, who’s to say Devon won’t find me three months down the road, huh? Running only delays the pain.” I swiped a hair out of my eyes. “You gotta tell me more about the darks—”

  “I don’t know all that much about them.”

  “Bullshit. I know you don’t wanna talk about them because you don’t wanna scare me but, dude, this is how I am. I need the information so I can sort out the problem.”

  He crossed his arms on the table. “From what I understand, the darks live together on their grounds unless they’re looking for victims or taking down one of us and before you can ask, no, I don’t know where their grounds are.”

  “Is it on this planet?”

  “Can we please try to stay on topic? I’m pretty sure it’s on this planet. Ummm,” he twitched his lips, “darks love to party.”

  “Seriously? I kinda imagined them all hating each other and being mad.”

  “There’s plenty of that.” He drew a figure eight on his wrist with his finger. “From what I know, the dark world is about power and control. It’s a hierarchy with Devon at the top. Under him, being a dark is all about keeping your spot or moving up a notch. Like, suppose by some miracle, a bunch of brights took out Joseph. The disruption in the chain would cause a power struggle and there’d be a period of reordering that would take several months, if not longer, until the strongest dominated and took Joseph’s place. Any high-ranking dark would probably plot to kill off or suppress his competition to secure his seat while trying to win Devon’s favor.”

  “Really? They’d fight each other?”

  “For sure. But day to day, it’s the hierarchy that keeps the peace among them so they can all self-indulge: drink, smoke, have sex, be bad, party.” He took both of my hands in his. “But, Kris, none of that matters. Devon has too much power, much more power than you and me. And there’s no telling how many darks he’ll bring with him or when that’ll happen. What I do know is that he will take you to his world. He will convert you to darkness. You will be his whore and that’s something I can’t even think about.”

  “Whore?”

  He gripped my fingers. “He’ll own you, your energy and your body—that’s how it works. He’ll turn your soul to anger and hatred. It will happen. Kris, if there was another way …”

  “We can’t win?”

  “Not right now. We need some time.”

 
“Can we stop in Austin on the way to California?”

  “Absolutely.”

  Two days later, his truck and my car were packed. Jericho had been sleeping sporadically for the previous several weeks, rising during the night to scan every few hours. He hadn’t picked up any dark signatures. He’d talked to Julia and Donovan. They would shut down the house in Corpus and meet us in California. We’d find a new address and the household would be reestablished. Julia and Donovan were my family, my Chosen family—Jericho my man, Julia my older sister, and Donovan maybe a fifth cousin.

  _______

  We were lying in bed when I put my book down. I made my voice suggestive and the compression waves slackened. Far out.

  “Jericho.” I was astounded to see a sheen cover his eyes. “When will you take off my clothes? Could you do that now?”

  “I could now.” His voice yielded to mine.

  Holy crap! I spoke normally. “Really? Right now? Would ya?”

  He stared at the ceiling. “Did you entrance me?”

  “Yeah, man. That’s off the wall.”

  “Damn it, Kris! Don’t do that! It’s dark. You shouldn’t even be able to do the voice.”

  “You started it.” I smiled.

  “Brights don’t entrance. I only did it because I had to. What’d you say?”

  “Freak out. I asked when you were going to, you know, take all my clothes off. I just wanted to see if I could do it.”

  “I can’t sleep now. Thanks a lot.”

  “Would you like a snack?”

  He ate triple-chocolate layer cake with a sour look on his face and semi-glossy eyes. “You’ve put the idea in my mind and we can’t be gettin’ it on until California. If I start taking off your clothes you have to stop me.”

  “Okay okay, I’m sorry. I asked if you could. I didn’t order you to do it. You know you want to.”

  He gave me the death look.

  In the middle of the night, I shivered.

  “Kris, get up! Go!” He pushed my clothes onto my chest and pulled my arms. “Wake up! You gotta go! Right now!”

  I was half asleep and almost fell off the mattress. I heard a foghorn. Groggy, I looked around. I heard it again. The exterior door to his room was wide open and the wind blew on my face. Then I saw it, mist flowing over the ocean’s surface, glittering black and sparkling red, the two colors snaking in and out of each other. I hadn’t seen anything like it since my assault at The Bakery and was transfixed by its movement. It dissolved near shore.

  In the distance, I vaguely heard Troy’s voice call my name. I dropped my clothes. I’m coming …

  Jericho must’ve noticed my sluggish motions because he suddenly grasped my arms. I came back to reality.

  He took my face in his hands and kissed me gently. “Don’t fight me; I need to do this.”

  Blue light raced into my eyes as I stood motionless.

  “What’d you do?” I said when his light stopped. Every square inch of my skin tingled. It felt like the spark whenever we touched, except that it was travelling my entire body.

  “Go. Now. I’ll find you. Don’t come back. Go!” He ran outside.

  What did he whisper? The tingles subsided.

  I whipped on my shorts, grabbed my backpack, and dug around, but they weren’t there. I shuffled the contents, shaking the pack hard. Where are my keys? Running around the house, I finally found them on the kitchen counter. I tore out the deck door and saw Jericho standing near the water. A brilliant streak of silver and a streak of shining brown hit the deck. Donovan and Julia appeared, eyes lit. Donovan went down to the sand and Julia remained, her hands held out in front of her.

  I jumped the deck wall to go to my car but then stalled out. Two people were walking up from the shallows. The one with fiery red eyes moved like a specter, her form appearing to float over the surface like her hair in the breeze. She was there at the shoreline and then she was gone. Stunned, I looked around.

  “I’m not going to play hide-and-seek with you, Ava!” Julia made slow circles, her head turning left and right.

  Hide and seek? I was surprised by the tone of her voice. She sounded angry and I’d never heard her speak that way before. I continued to comb the beach, my sight stopping on Troy. His physical characteristics changed with every step he took. Brown hair became white blond, and tan skin lightened to pale against his white shirt. He looked older, maybe mid-thirties, but his face was even more striking than before. Troy had turned into a handsome stranger, making my stomach turn. This is Devon? He came to a halt ten feet from Jericho. If they were speaking, I couldn’t hear it, but both of them were still for minutes while Donovan carefully and slowly moved to position himself behind Devon. Julia crept from the deck and onto the beach, still watching everything around her. Abruptly, Devon unleashed a wide beam of glimmering black light from one hand, aimed straight at Jericho. Go now! Run! He’ll find you.

  Black thrashed blue, sparks falling at the collision. From thirty yards away, the immense power Devon held pricked my skin like hail—cold, turbulent, wrong. Go! I couldn’t move. Jericho was straining. I could tell by his stance, how his knees were slightly bent and his back was bowed. I craned my neck to look for Julia. She turned the corner and went around the side of the house, out of view. Donovan’s energy struck Devon’s arm and Devon didn’t flinch. Devon casually raised his other hand to Donovan and within four seconds punctured Donovan’s defenses, all the while easily fending off the magic from both of Jericho’s palms. Donovan fell. Julia! I scoured the area for her again, my keys slipping from my fingers. I needed to find her but my feet wouldn’t go.

  Devon held something in his hand. There was a flash, a line, a point—a sword. Jericho spun away from the slash of the blade and continued the fight, his actions so swift I couldn’t track him. Immediately, Devon’s figure became untraceable. Their flurry was marked only by the gleam of the sword and the energies from their hands, blurred by speed. I focused on them for a split second and then lost sight of them again. I couldn’t gauge where they were going or where they’d been and felt drugged by the commotion. How do they move so fast?

  The altercation paused for only a second before black energy knifed Jericho’s body, exiting his back. He dropped to the sand. Devon stood over him. Jericho’s body lay still and my soul screamed so loudly that I lurched forward. I can’t leave him!

  Devon raised the blade and held it steady. At that moment, everything became very clear. I’d been thinking about purpose the wrong way. I’d been looking at it too broadly, like a life’s work—a talent to be found and improved on every day. But maybe purpose was specific: one act that could have lasting effects. The attempt I was considering wouldn’t solve the problem, but if it spared a few brights from conversion or death, or saved another person like Sylvia, that had purpose. This fight was mine. This moment was why I hadn’t gone to Rice. This moment was why I’d come and stayed in Corpus Christi, and this moment was why I hadn’t wanted to go to California. This was the signpost I’d been searching for. I had a purpose, a very important purpose, and knew exactly what it was and what I had to do. Nothing else mattered.

  Fear and anger gave way to the void. My mind withdrew and I went to the place where there was only me and the notes. It was the place I went when I played my guitar, the place where reality and reverie combined. Everything around me went quiet, except the rush of a wave that was building higher and higher inside of me. My eyes lowered and flared, my head twisted left, my fingers tensed, and the wind blew hard on my face.

  Dead calm.

  My energy detonated in a discharge of thick green that broadcasted the beach, the explosion distorting everything in its wake. The transmission lasted a millisecond, but in my vision time stopped and was portrayed as a series of snapshots of the landscape. Millions of grains of sand were thrust outward from around me. The grasses in the dunes were ripped from the soil and sucked away as palms cracked in half and were hurled to the water. The loose sand gathered and drafted as
a continuous curving line that flowed across the beach, preceding my energy to the shore. Devon never saw it coming. He was catapulted far into the ocean, his power subjugated by my will and his body gone from my sight. The breaking waves were reduced to ripples and silence.

  There was no way he could survive out there, not having taken the fury I’d unleashed. With Devon removed from existence and the dark world, I’d started a battle within it. And once they regrouped, I’d do it again.

  Julia was lying on the ground at the shoreline. She got caught in its path? I didn’t see her. I didn’t know! She’ll be okay … we’re on the same team so my power didn’t hurt her. Did it?

  The release was too much at once, my energy as bankrupt as my mind and body. Weaving and stumbling, I tried to get to Jericho. The dim light coming from the landscape lighting behind me showed on his face. One of his eyes was open, the other closed, his lips parted. At first I thought he was winking at me, giving me a signal, but then I realized his body was in the same position as before, except his chest wasn’t moving. I’d regained my footing and was ten feet from him when the other dark came around my back, unfazed from the attack. I’d been so crazed that I’d forgotten all about her. Hide-and-seek.

  The dark blue dress she wore reminded me of a bygone era, its long skirt flitting about her ankles. Auburn hair fell past her shoulders, her face pale and her features small. But she was beautiful despite her dark eyes that were challenging mine. She studied my face, sneering. Her head jerked and her stomach caved inward like she’d been hit in the gut. The beast inside of me growled, heat rising up my back. I raised my hands as crimson emerged in her irises.