A Life for a Life

“Take a right at that mailbox there. He lives at the end of a long driveway,” John instructed. She turned where he indicated and they continued on a bumpy dirt road shaded by trees on both sides. Clouds began rolling in and the air felt charged, like a storm was on its way.

“I’m sorry, Jess,” John said suddenly. “I should have told you sooner when I suspected something.”

“Yes, you should have,” Jess retorted. “You knew something was off days ago. You might have saved Marcos Gabriel’s life, maybe even Mary Linker too.”

“I know,” John answered, sounding miserable. “I just couldn’t believe it. Not the man who loves Thanksgiving the most because the only obligation is to eat as much as possible. The man who volunteered to coach kids’ baseball even though he doesn’t have kids of his own. The man who loved his wife and stayed by her side every single day for over a year as she wasted away from cancer. I thought I had to be wrong.”

“Be honest now John, do you really think it’s him?” Jess asked, her voice gentler. John didn’t hesitate.

“Yes, I do. Even to be near him doesn’t feel right anymore, which sounds weird, I know, but it’s the truth.” Given the black haze she could see around John, Jess didn’t think that was strange at all.

Jess slowed as she saw the end of the driveway near. The trees seemed to end and Jess could make out a house sitting in a clearing up ahead. She stopped the car and turned to John.

“John, if Charlie and Kelly are really in there then I don’t want to wait for backup to arrive. Your uncle could kill them any minute. I need to know if I can trust you to have my back right now.”

“I’ll cover you,” John told her firmly.

“Even if it means you might have to shoot your uncle?” Jess asked.

“If they’re in there, that means we know for sure he’s killed at least five people and probably more. I won’t hesitate if it comes to that,” John said. He paused and added, “but if we could avoid it?”

“I won’t shoot unless I absolutely have to,” Jess promised. She readied a knockout spell on her ring and opened herself up to all her magic so she could access it in a hurry. Then she formed a loop similar to the one she used for the man in the library, only Jess altered the spell so that it restricted access to magic without immobilizing the wearer. It was similar to the bracelet she had given Sara, only more temporary.

“There’s one more thing John,” she said, slipping the loop around his wrist where it tightened so it wouldn’t fall off.

“I can’t let you use any magic at all.” He looked at his new bracelet, turning his wrist back and forth in confusion.

“Why not? You don’t trust me?”

“It’s not that John. You know about the people with magic who have been going crazy in public?”

“Yeah.”

“They were affected by the imbalance your uncle has caused and it’s created a black haze around them that I can see. That same haze is around you now. If you use magic, I don’t know what might happen, but I can’t risk you getting someone hurt or killed. You can still have your gun though.”

John looked worried by what she told him, but he agreed and stepped out of the car. Jess got out and checked her phone for an update on the backup, only to curse when she discovered that it was dead. With her heightened stress levels, her magic probably drained the remaining juice.

They quietly made their way across the lawn to the large farm-style house. It looked to be in decent enough repair. There were two stories and a full wraparound porch, but the grass was unkempt and the flowerbeds overgrown. Clearly Anders had stopped caring after his wife died.

Jess threw her shields wide open and scanned the area for signs of life. Other than a few small souls low to the ground that she assumed were animals, there didn’t seem to be anyone hiding on the grounds. Unfortunately, her magic didn’t allow her to see beings through walls, so she still didn’t know the location or number of people inside.

The storm was rapidly rolling in so that even though it was mid-morning, it felt more like twilight. The wind was picking up and in the distance was the sound of thunder. There was something about the storm that felt unusual to Jess, tickling the edge of her awareness. She thought it might have something to do with the imbalance in nature, but she didn’t have time to focus on it now. At this point she was just hoping the rain held off a little longer.

Fortunately, the large house had several lights blazing, so they at least knew someone was home. Jess crept up the steps and ducked low under the nearest window. She took a quick glance, but the curtains were closed so she couldn’t see anything. Cursing under her breath, Jess motioned for John to stay there to cover the front exit while she continued around to the back of the house, wincing when the wood boards of the porch creaked under her weight.

It was as she reached the back door that she heard it: a man’s voice, muffled through the walls. On the other side of the door was a large picture window, reaching from the floor to the ceiling. Gauzy curtains hung on the inside, giving Jess a hazy but decent view through to a dining room.

Jess spotted Charlie tied to a chair sitting at a large oval table. Some sort of fabric was tied around her mouth in a gag, but she was awake and glaring at her captor. Jess let out a breath of relief. Two seats down from Charlie was her friend Kelly. Kelly did not look as well off. She was slumped forward in her chair with her wrists tied to the armrests and Jess could see blood on her forehead. She didn’t appear to be conscious.

Anders was turned away from them, doing something Jess couldn’t see on top of a rolling cart meant for bringing food dishes from the kitchen. As she memorized the general layout of what she could see, he spoke again.

“It’s nothing personal, you know. I don’t want to kill anyone.” Anders’s voice was muffled coming through the window. He turned, holding an old book in one hand and a knife in the other.

He probably used to look like your average guy, medium height and build, with brown hair and eyes. Now he appeared sickly, with dark circles around his eyes, baggy clothes barely hanging on to a slight frame, and greasy-looking hair and skin. He did fit the general description Sara gave them of the man who frequented the diner, though. Jess made a mental note to show Sara a picture so she could confirm it for them later.

“But I have to bring her back. I need to, you understand? Not want but need. I can’t live without her,” Anders continued as he walked around the table and stopped by Kelly’s side. Carefully placing the open book on the table, he raised Kelly’s head and pried open her eyelids, looking for a reaction. Kelly’s eyelids fluttered but when Anders released her head, she slumped back down again. At least she was alive.

Jess pulled back from the window and turned to the back door. There was a screen door that opened easily, but the actual door was locked. Jess crouched down, visualizing lockpicking tools in her mind that formed in front of her, first as a smokey substance, then solidifying at her touch. She grabbed them and set to work. She could still hear Anders talking to Charlie.

“As a necromancer, this woman is already linked to death. Maybe that was the connection I was missing.” Jess could hear mumbled shouts that were getting louder and more frantic. She could picture Charlie fighting to get free and Jess knew her time was up. Knowing she would lose the element of surprise, Jess pulled out her gun and fired at the lock.

Not wasting a moment, Jess charged in, locating the dining room directly on her left. She used only a second to take in Anders with his knife raised in one hand and the other placed on top of the open book on the table before she shouted, “Police! Freeze!”

Anders was quicker on his feet than she was expecting, turning and throwing the knife at Jess so she was forced to lurch away without getting a chance to fire. When she stood back up, Anders was ducking behind the unconscious woman, another knife he must have had on him raised to her throat.

“Drop it or she dies!” he shouted back. Jess cursed and dropped her gun. Barely had it hit the floor when it rose back up, floating in mid-air but now pointed at her. John told her that his uncle was a welder. Apparently, that gave him some telekinetic abilities with objects as well, perhaps specific to metal.

That was a problem because it meant Jess couldn’t physically tie him down with her magic like she had with the man at the library. He would still be able to control some of the surrounding objects and kill them all. With the gun on her, there was no way she’d be able to get close enough to knock him out either. The slightest movement and she’d wind up with a bullet in her.

A loud crash from the front of the house caused Anders to flinch and turn briefly, giving Jess a chance to dart forward and grab the gun out of the air. It was like pulling on cement. No matter how hard she pulled, the gun stayed firmly in place even as Anders turned back to her. Jess was afraid he was going to shoot her right then, but he simply sneered.

“Back up, Inspector. I have complete control over your weapon. I have a special affinity for weapons, you know, especially knives. I’m sure you found my beautiful dagger.”

“Why did you give it up?” Jess retorted, trying to buy time. Where was John? Wasn’t that loud crash because of him?

“I didn’t mean to, I just dropped it. It sounded like someone was coming so I didn’t have time to retrieve it.” Anders shrugged. Jess wondered why he brought the knife to the dump site at all but she didn’t get a chance to ask as Anders continued.

“It doesn’t matter though, that knife wasn’t working for me anyway. I figured I could try something else.” Anders turned away, staring at Kelly with hungry eyes. Jess shuddered at his predatory look but used the moment to take a step forward while he wasn’t looking.

“Why wasn’t the knife working, Peter?” Jess asked, trying to pull his attention away from Kelly. Anders was shaking his head, never tearing his eyes off the unconscious necromancer.

“I made it just how the book said, but it didn’t work. Why wouldn’t it work? It was supposed to cut the life away from the body, but it would only stay detached for a few seconds. There wasn’t enough time for me to perform the spell and make the life force go into my wife. It kept going back to its original body and those stupid homeless people would wake up screaming. I had to shut them up.” Anders’s face twisted with a look of disgust. Did he even see them as people anymore? Probably not. Jess glanced around warily.

“Where is your wife’s body?” That got Anders to look up finally and he frowned at her.

“She’s on the bed down the hall. I wanted her to be comfortable when she woke up.” Jess grimaced, imagining a decayed corpse rising from the bed to greet her husband. If what he was doing wasn’t so awful, she might feel sorry for the man who obviously cared for his wife. Anders turned back to Kelly, fingering the knife in his hands.

“I think she might be the key. The book reacts to her in a way I’ve never felt before. Do you see what this means? I can bring people back from the dead. I’ll be worshiped for my knowledge,” Anders said, a crazed glint in his eye. Jess shook her head. Whatever his initial motivations, the dark magic had corrupted him.

That was all Jess needed to know. She focused her magic until Anders’s aura came into view. It was nearly black, with a few streaks of vivid red that flashed like lightning here and there, and the soul itself appeared shrunk, barely filling up his body rather than the bursting light Jess was used to seeing. Jess had never seen anything like it, even on the murderers and rapists she had encountered. The evil this man committed was so far outside of the normal balance of nature that it was literally eating him up.

“Peter, put down the knife and release the woman,” Jess said, slowly raising her hands in what she hoped was a non-threatening gesture. Really what she was doing was preparing to cast a very specific spell.

Her ability to see souls was not only an investigative tool but could also become a weapon. If she could see a soul, she could trap it. Despite her personal vows in school, Jess had been forced to use her abilities a few times in her ten years with WISP on some of the most dangerous criminals she’d encountered. This time it was about saving the lives of two women, one of whom was her partner and damn if she was going to let Peter Anders hurt her or Kelly.

“No! She’s the key. I have to do this!” Anders said desperately.

“Your wife wouldn’t have wanted you to do this for her, Peter,” Jess said, but Anders wasn’t listening. He was crying now, and the gun shook in the air, but his hold on the knife was steady. He pressed down, creating a small trickle of blood on Kelly’s neck. Behind them Charlie struggled against her bonds. He must have used some sort of magical dampening object that prevented her from getting away. Jess took a deep breath.

“You give me no choice, Peter,” Jess said, grim. Green vines exploded from her hands, solid and real. Jess directed them, not around his body, but around his soul while he stared with wide eyes. As soon as they touched his aura, they turned a flaming red, despite Jess willing them to stay green. It didn’t matter, they always turned red. She knew that’s what caused the fire sensation, but there was nothing she could do about it.

The red vines tightened around the man’s soul. His shouted “No!” was almost lost under the sound of a gunshot firing before the gun fell to the floor at the same time Anders did.

Jess jerked back as the bullet grazed her arm, rocking back into the wall behind her. For a few breathless seconds, everything was still and silent. Then she let out a shaky breath and stood upright. She checked first Kelly, then Anders, for a pulse, finding good strong ones, before untying Charlie.

“Are you okay?” Charlie asked once the gag was removed from her mouth.

“Yeah, my arm burns like a bitch but I’ll live. Are you okay?” Jess asked as she finished untying her. Charlie waved an affirmative as she raced over to Kelly. She was moaning now and her eyes slowly blinked open as she tried to focus on Charlie.

“S’happen?” Kelly asked groggily.

“It’s okay Kel. We’re going to get you to a hospital,” Charlie assured her, loosening the bindings around her wrists.

“Hospital, good,” Kelly mumbled, folding her arms on the table and lowering her head to rest. Charlie glanced down at Anders lying on the floor.

“Is he alive?” Charlie asked.

“Yes, but I trapped his soul in his body. He’s in a lot of pain right now.”

Charlie looked confused. “His soul?”

“It’s something I can do. I’ll tell you about it later,” Jess said, avoiding her eyes. She squatted next to the prone man and summoned her last knock-out spell off her ring. She patted her pockets for her special glove she usually used to handle the sticky black sphere but came up empty. Sighing, Jess narrowed her gaze and levitated the sphere off her ring, letting it drop on the back of Anders’ neck. She reached her arms out and pulled the red vines away from his soul, noting Charlie’s gasp as they became green and were again visible to her.

“You wrapped magic vines around his soul?” Charlie asked, her eyes wide. Jess tried to get up, delaying answering, but found herself rocking back to land on her butt, exhaustion eating at her. She decided the floor was a perfectly good place to continue sitting for a while.

Jess peered up at Charlie, trying to gauge her emotions before answering, but Charlie looked surprised more than anything else. Jess hoped that was a good thing.

“I see souls. Because I can see them, I can also touch them. It’s agony for the person though, so I only do it in an emergency.” Jess’s eyes pleaded for understanding.

Charlie’s gaze was concerned, but slowly she nodded. “I think this qualified as an emergency.”

Jess wanted to ask what she thought about working with someone who could see her soul but decided this wasn’t the time to push. At least she wasn’t running away screaming from her. She watched as Charlie sat down in a chair next to Kelly and rubbed at her temples.

“Headache?” Jess asked.

“It’s the storm, it’s been affecting me for the last hour, even with my access to magic blocked. I think if Anders hadn’t restrained me like he did, I might have had an episode like Chloe and the others,” Charlie admitted. Jess looked on in concern.

“But you’re okay?”

“Yes, don’t worry. I’ve locked down my magic as far as I can and I don’t think anything is going to happen. It’s giving me a terrible headache though. I think once the storm breaks and unleashes some of its energy, that will help.” Right on cue, a loud boom of louder rattled the windows, and rain began to pour down. They sat there in silence for a minute until Charlie let out a sigh of relief. She turned as they heard sirens outside.

Backup had arrived.