Earth (23 page)

He unlocked the car with an alarm remote, but
he still reached for the passenger side door and opened it for me
before walking around and getting in on the driver’s side. I sat
with my left shoulder braced against the seat and my left leg
curled under me so I could face him. He turned the car on and I was
grateful to find his car was nowhere near as loud as mine. The
radio was already on, but he turned the volume down low, making it
a light background noise, still loud enough to fill any silences.
He sat back in his seat. He wrapped his hands around the steering
wheel as if we were going somewhere, but he didn’t put the car into
gear. I had no idea why he wanted to talk to me and didn’t want to
be the first to break the silence so I just sat there, waiting.

“Strange weather we’ve been having lately,
huh?” Jensen didn’t strike me as one for small talk, so that took
me aback at first, but he was pointedly not looking at me. This
wasn’t small talk.

“That’s putting it lightly,” I said
carefully. He nodded, his eyes still fixed on some far off point
outside the windshield. I realized in my nervousness I had
re-enforced my shields so much that I could almost see a fuzzy
quality around the edges of Jensen’s body. I took a moment and
centered myself. I had so much practice at doing this that I didn’t
have to close my eyes or change my breathing. Slowly, like peeling
away the layers of an onion, I took down my shields until the fuzzy
quality faded and Jensen came back into sharp contrast. A weight
pressed down on my chest, making it very difficult to breath. I
opened my mouth and took in a deep, painful breath. Jensen turned
and looked at me, a mixture of fear, anger, and confusion passed
behind his eyes as he did.

“You’re reading me.” He didn’t ask, he knew
better, but I wasn’t, not on purpose.

“No, I am not. You’re projecting, a lot.” I
put my hand on my chest involuntarily, still having to control my
breathing very obviously. He was upset and that was affecting his
ability to control his shields. I wanted to reach out to him, give
him some comfort and reassurance, but if just reading him bothered
him that much I didn’t think he’d want me to influence him either.
“Are you ok?” I finally asked.

“No, no, I’m not.”

I was surprised he answered so quickly and
honestly. I was so used to our word games that I thought I would
have to draw or trick it out of him.

“I think I need help.”

I heard a squeak and looked at his hands. He
was gripping the steering wheel hard enough that the plastic
underneath was giving and his fingers were long past white and were
turning red with the effort.

“I haven’t slept in days… I’m in over my head
and I can’t seem to break the surface. I’m drowning, Shayna.” He
turned those endless eyes on me and I didn’t have time to enjoy the
way he said my name. He was in pain and I didn’t think it was just
emotional.

“What do you mean? What are you in over your
head with?” I asked calmly, lowering my voice to a whisper. I had
found after years of dealing with people’s emotions, the level of
your voice effected people much more deeply than most realized.

“I don’t want to drag you into this. It isn’t
fair of me. I shouldn’t have brought you this far as it is…” I
didn’t think he was really talking to me anymore. He had looked
away and shook his head as he spoke.

“What are you talking about? You haven’t done
anything to me.” Anxiety pulsed out of his body and pushed me away
from him. I felt like I was fighting to walk against a hot, angry
wind.

“If only I had more control.” I was afraid he
would burst the blood vessels in his hands if he didn’t let go
soon. “I’m so sorry. You have to know that, Shayna, I tried to stop
this. If I had known…” He turned back to me suddenly and I realized
I had leaned towards him without really being conscious of doing
so. Our faces were only inches away. I could smell his skin; it was
sweet and dusky. I could almost taste it. He wrinkled his brow for
just a moment and then leaned in, closing the few inches between
us.

His lips were soft and firm at the same time.
He kissed me almost angrily, I had the sense that he was trying to
draw me into him. I sighed against him, trying to memorize the
contours of his lips, the fullness of his bottom lip, the heat of
his mouth. I reached out and touched his cheek with just my
fingertips. A sharp twinge of power shot through my fingertips,
shocking me enough to break the kiss.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered, closing his eyes
and letting his head fall.

“Don’t be,” I whispered, a little angry with
myself for ruining the moment.

“I should go.” He turned to open his door. I
reached out for his arm to stop him, but before I could even touch
him that same energetic shock ran through me. I pulled my hand back
suddenly, staring at it and remembering when Jodi and Steven had
tried to read the spells in my journal. He was out of the car and
on my side before I realized he’d cleared his door. He opened my
door and stood back to let me out.

“I thought you wanted to talk?” I asked as I
stepped out, standing in front of him.

“I’m sorry,” he said softly, still not
looking at me. He shut the door quietly and turned, placing a hand
on the small of my back to lead me back up to my front door. I had
the sensation of tiny electric pulses running up and down my spine
from his touch. I stepped up onto my front step and he took his
hand away and just as suddenly the sensations faded away as if they
had never been there. I unlocked the front door and opened it an
inch before I turned around to look at him again.

He had taken several steps back, too far away
now to speak in whispers. I bit down on my lower lip, confusion
plain on my face and I didn’t care. He raised a hand to me and gave
a small wave and turned to go. I started to say something but I
heard movement in the house and knew I needed to get inside before
either of my parents found me outside. I closed the door as quietly
as possible and threw the locks into place. By the time I made it
to the window, his car was already gone.

As everyone hoped, school was closed again on
Friday. There had been the occasional drizzle overnight and so many
classrooms had been under two feet of water that the schools didn’t
want to risk bringing kids back in when they could use the next
three days to repair the damages as best as the public schools
could afford to do. I spent the better part of the morning
meditating,
reaching out,
and reinforcing my personal
shields. Steven and Jodi were at home concentrating on calling up
and storing all the Air and Fire energy that they could. Earth
magic was easier to call up if I was outside, which we would be, so
I didn’t feel the need to store any excess energy.

We knew the ritual wouldn’t be performed
until midnight, so we needed to be down the coast after dark with
alibis that would let us out of our houses well past our curfews.
According to my mom, I was spending the night at Jodi’s, and
according to Jodi’s mom, she was spending the night at my house. I
didn’t know what Steven’s alibi was, but he’d said not to worry
about it so I didn’t; I had enough things to worry about more than
something as trivial as that.

I packed an overnight bag, laying our vials
of consecrated water in the bottom and some clothing over them and
then our ritual knives on top. I stared down at them, gleaming in
the overhead light of my room and suddenly had a sense of great
disappointment. Here we were, ready to charge into the dark forest
armed with three knives. For the knives to be useful, we would have
to be in very close proximity to the sociopath, not really what I
was going for.

I jumped as my phone vibrated in my pocket,
not realizing I had been holding my breath. I fumbled for the phone
and got it to my ear before the voicemail picked up. “Hello?” My
voice sounded too quiet.

“Terra?” Jodi’s voice sounded concerned over
the phone.

“Yeah, Fae.” I concentrated on breathing
normal to steady my voice.

“You alright?”

“Yeah, just didn’t think I’d get the phone in
time. You ready?”

“Yeah. Drake’s here so you don’t have to go
get him.”

“Good. You got your water?”

“Yeah, it’s in my bag.”

“Good, I’ll be there in a couple of minutes.”
We both hung up without saying good-bye. I didn’t think much of it
since I knew I’d be seeing her soon. I walked out into the living
room, my bag slung over my shoulder, and gave both my parents a
kiss good-bye. It wasn’t something we did often, but I guess I was
a little more worried about tonight than I was willing to admit. If
this was the last time I saw my parents, I’d like to feel good
about our last moment together.

I was idling outside Jodi’s house in less
than five minutes after we’d hung up. Steven slid into the back
with the bags and Jodi took the front seat. Everything was as
normal as if we were going to the movies on a Friday night. Too bad
we weren’t. I had my New Age CD in the stereo again, hoping the
soothing tones would calm our nerves. My hopes weren’t high.

We drove in silence; Jodi and Steven both
were gazing out their respective windows, as if keeping lookout for
some monster in the falling light. I was gripping the steering
wheel tight enough to strain my fingers. I realized about a half
hour down the road that my fingers were, in fact, aching. I eased
my grip one finger at a time and took a deep breath, exhaling a
little loudly through my mouth.

“Ditto,” Steven muttered from the backseat. I
glanced in the rearview mirror and saw that most of the color from
his face was gone and the lines in his jaw were so tight I could
tell he was grinding his teeth. Jodi didn’t look much better.

“We need to calm down,” I said to the car at
large. “Working ourselves up like this isn’t going to help us.
It’ll probably hurt us actually, so we need to calm down.”

“Easier said than done,” Jodi said more than
a little cynically.

“I know, but still we need to try.” I took my
right hand off of the steering wheel completely and flexed my
fingers back and forth trying to loosen them. Despite my efforts,
we still kept silent racing down the highway, the ocean a black
horizon meeting the deep blue sky of twilight out the passenger
side windows. I turned the heater on a little higher as the windows
started to frost over. We all had dressed warmly and darkly, all
dark blue jeans and dark hooded sweatshirts, but the winter air was
still chilling.

Finally, after what felt like far too long, I
found the mile marker and parking lot I had been looking for. Down
the highway there were two parking lots on either side of the road;
one was used mostly by surfers and the other was for a campground
that was completely deserted now. We parked in the surfer’s parking
lot, facing the campground so we could watch and wait for whoever
would be coming. We agreed they would probably park as far back
away from the highway as possible to stay out of sight. I cut the
engine and the lights and reached behind my seat for a couple of
blankets. Without the heater, it was going to get cold inside the
car fast. I handed one to Steven and stretched the other over the
front seats for Jodi and me. We huddled down until we could just
see over the dashboard so we wouldn’t be too obvious and settled
into the long wait.

Full dark fell around us in a hush; past the
windows you couldn’t see where the rocks ended and the ocean
started. If it weren’t for the crashing, angry waves left over from
the storm, you wouldn’t know it was out there. I rolled my head
back and forth trying to loosen up my neck and shoulder muscles.
Jodi was curled in her seat with the edge of the blanket up on her
shoulders and clutched under her chin, leaving her head floating in
the darkness. I glanced over my shoulder to check on Steven and
nearly jumped in shock; he had fallen asleep curled up in the
backseat!

“Are you serious!” I hissed at him, arching
over my seat and reaching out to him to swat him on the hip. Jodi
turned in her seat to see what was wrong and let her blue eyes go
wide seeing Steven just start to wake up.

“Way to be a team player!” Her voice was
louder than mine and made me jump again, but I managed to swat
Steven again.

“Wake up! Wake up!” Two more swats and Steven
came around fighting the blanket to sit up.

“Dude! I’m up, I’m up!” Steven said a little
angrily.

“Shhhhh!” I put my finger to my mouth and
shook my head at him. “Shut up! Jesus Christ! Are you kidding me?”
I glared at him ready to ball him out when Jodi taped me rapidly,
almost hitting me.

“Look!” She had hunched back down in her
seat, leaning towards the dashboard and pointing out the
windshield. I turned around quickly and scooted down in my seat,
peering over the steering wheel and drawing in my bottom lip to
chew on it. A dark car had just turned into the campground parking
lot across the highway from us, slowly rolling past the first few
rows of parking spots.

“Guess that’s our cue?” Steven asked in a
whisper just over my shoulder.

“Not yet, we don’t want to let them see us.
Don’t know what he’ll do to the girl if he sees us coming for
them,” I said, never taking my eyes off the red glow of the car’s
taillights.

“We don’t want to lose them in the woods
though,” Jodi whispered.

“Yeah, but… Oh, look!” I cut myself off.
“He’s parking.” We watched intently; I was pretty sure all of us
were holding our breath. We could hear the distant echo of two car
doors slamming shut.

“Ok, come on,” I whispered again and opened
my car door, Jodi following my lead, and Steven getting out behind
her. I gently set the door against the car and leaned my body
against it to close it as quietly as possible with Jodi copying
everything I did. We each had a vial of water in each pocket and
gripped our knives in our dominant hands. We dashed across the
highway, head and shoulders hunched down, trying to hide in the
open, and hurried through the parking lot to follow the two into
the woods.