Tome of Bill (Companion): Shining Fury (12 page)

“What about you?” I asked. “Can you scry them?”

She gave her head a slow shake. “Nope. I’ve been trying to reach out, but again, it’s your power. All I got in my head was a lot of static. In fact it was starting to give me a headache, so I disconnected.”

Now that she mentioned it, I realized that sense of another was gone. The last several minutes must have been too hectic for me to have noticed it.

“So how’d you like your first ride aboard the Icon Express?” I asked.

“Needs more scissoring.”

I stopped dead in my tracks. “What?!”

Kelly burst out laughing. “Oh the look on your face. You really are too easy!”

“Blessed One, are you okay?” Vincent asked, turning at my outburst. His eyes darted between us before finally resting on me. Concern crossed his face, and I realized I probably looked a bit flushed at Kelly’s wicked little remark.

“I’m fine. It’s just ... a bit warm out today.”

He continued to look at me as if debating whether I was telling the truth, until finally he turned and continued leading us onward.

“Yep,” Kelly whispered. “Far too easy.”

The cry caught us all by surprise right as we stepped out from between two buildings onto the empty street. My aura flared to life, the cold, calm sureness of it readying me for battle. My two companions raised their weapons in the direction of the sound, and I followed suit.

A second later, we spotted the figure running toward us.

There really is something to the saying that fate protects fools and small children because, through some minor miracle, none of us opened fire.

“Slow down, you idiot!”

Veronica ignored Meg’s warning and continued to race in our direction. Looking past her, I could see the older witch standing at the forefront of a larger group – the Templar.

My two companions lowered their weapons. I was a bit slower in doing so, the warrior inside of me stubbornly insisting that battle be joined. I did my best to push it back down, dimming the glow around me until it was extinguished. A smile formed on my face as the realization hit that we’d managed to find our missing comrades.

Or that they’d found us.

Veronica squealed with delight as she came upon us, throwing herself into Kelly’s arms and almost knocking the both of them off their feet.

“Jeez, V, chill out a bit,” Kelly said. “It’s not like I came back from the dead or anything.”

Veronica disengaged herself. “I’m just glad to see you’re okay. That all of you are,” she quickly added. “You have no idea how ... tough it’s been with you gone.”

Kelly lowered her voice. “It’s cool, V, they know.”

“They do?”

“I didn’t have much choice. It kinda came up at the spur of the moment.”

Veronica stepped back and looked warily at Vincent and me for a moment. I remembered Kelly’s warning that the nature of catalyst witches wasn’t a widely known fact, something they preferred to keep that way. “Mums the word,” I said, miming zipping my lips.

Veronica looked back at Kelly, who nodded reassuringly. She then turned to Vincent, staring at him expectantly.

“As a Knight Templar, I am sworn to tell the truth to members of my order.” After a moment, though, his expression softened. “However, if they don’t ask me specifically about it, then I see no reason to bring it up.”

* * *

“...And then when you three took off, they paused, like they weren’t sure what to do next.”

“That gave the faithful enough time to re-arm and cover our escape,” Bernadette finished.

“They were after me,” I said, my hand resting on the hilt of the blade once again strapped to my waist. Reuniting with it felt much the same way it had when Bill had returned it to me some months back, the euphoria of feeling somehow complete again. I glanced over to Kelly and Veronica standing side by side and got the impression they were feeling much the same way about being back with each other.

“I’d say that was pretty obvious,” Meg replied, drawing my attention back.

“Wherever the Blessed One walks, the evil of this world will congregate against her,” Bernadette said.

Though she’d lost more men, many of them young enough to have barely begun living their lives, I was happy to see the majority of the Templar had survived the ordeal. Many were wounded, a few fairly badly, but I took care of them as I relayed what had happened to us – minus a few details, of course. Thankfully there were no requests for elaboration as I moved through the Templar ranks, laying hands upon the injured and restoring them to fighting shape.

“Though I am pained to admit it, Blessed One, we would never have found you were it not for the witches.”

“Could you say that again?” Meg asked. “I wasn’t recording it.”

Bernadette spared her a sour glare before adding, “It’s true enough. We had been wandering aimlessly ever since you disappeared.”

“Doesn’t seem aimless to me,” I replied. “You were heading in the right direction after all.”

The Templar commander nodded. “It seemed a prudent course of action, considering our mission, but it was slow going. We were spread out, looking for you, covering as much ground as we could while trying to attract as little attention as possible.”

“Did you run into any more trouble?”

“We came close,” Meg said. “Saw a few cops off in the distance. Also, one of the Templar heard some moaning from down an alleyway, thought it might be you guys, and just barely managed to escape from a pair of zombies.”

“We were about to give up hope, continue on and try to fulfill the mission without you...”

“This is the good part,” Veronica interrupted.

“Oh shut up,” Meg said, although the smile on her face betrayed she was quite pleased with herself. “I’d been scrying with no luck, except for one quick blip from the others a few hours back.”

“The others?” I asked, letting hope slip into my tone.

Meg’s grin widened. “Yep. We were just ducking behind some dumpsters, waiting for a pair of cop cars to turn down the next block, when I got a tingle in my head. Anyway, I drew a quick circle in the muck around me ... which was super gross, in case you’re wondering.”

“And?”

“And it was Christy. Sounds like they ran into some real shit up their way. Couldn’t quite catch all of it, but there were a lot of different flashes – vampires, forest folk, that skinny guy ... what’s his name?”

“Ed?” I offered. “He isn’t hurt, is he?”

“Nothing like that. It’s just that he was wearing a loincloth for some reason.”

“A loincloth?”

“As I said, it was a little jumbled.”

“What about Bill?” I asked, perhaps a little more eagerly than I’d meant to. The sly glance Meg gave me in return told me it wasn’t missed.

“There was a lot going on, but the main gist was they were fine and closing in on the city limits.”

I let out a relieved breath I hadn’t been aware I’d been holding.

Kelly and Veronica high fived, echoing what I was feeling.

“That brings us back to you guys,” Meg continued. “It was a big ball of nothing, and then all of a sudden I felt a distant surge of power. Then another. There was no flipping way that wasn’t magical, so I suggested we try to trace it to its source.”

“A lucky thing for us,” I said.

“Yeah, funny how lucky it was.” She glanced sidelong at Kelly, but said nothing further.

Knowing we were delving into potentially sensitive waters, I added, “The important thing is we’re back together, our friends are okay, and there’s still hope we can pull this off.”

“Yes, Blessed One,” Bernadette said. “There is, however, no denying that our enemies know we are here.”

I thought about that for a moment, then smiled. “You’re right. So there’s no point in pretending anymore. Tell your men to put on their cloaks. The time for stealth is over. It’s time to go to war.”

“How are you feeling?”

I continued swinging my sword, parrying an imaginary foe, the weapon almost humming in my hand as it cut through the air. Thank goodness Bernadette had managed to retrieve it after we’d been ambushed. “Right as rain.”

It wasn’t a lie for a change. For the time being, the doubt inside of me had retreated, letting the power of faith and the confidence that came with it fill any and all voids it left behind.

Our group was back together again. We were closing in on our goal and had received word that our friends to the north were all fine. It was as good as things were going to get. We needed to press our advantage. We weren’t going to get a better chance.

I sheathed the weapon, my fingers dancing across its grip, and turned toward Kelly. “How about you?”

“You tell me.” She held up a hand, and a ball of green flame coalesced above her outstretched fingers, danced there for a few seconds, and then winked out of existence again. “Feels good to have my mojo back.”

“I’m sure Veronica feels the same way.”

“Definitely. She was on the verge of going all basket case. Not sure if you’ve noticed or not, but she can be a bit jumpy.”

“I’ve noticed. But she was with Meg. Can’t they just,” I lowered my voice, “sync up?”

“Yeah, but it takes away from Meg’s reserves to do so. Also, she can get seriously bitchy about someone else ‘suckling off her magical teat,’ as she would put it.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle at the metaphor. “So what did you tell her about that power surge she felt?”

“I said that there must’ve been another catalyst nearby somewhere because all of a sudden, poof, I was all charged up again.”

“Think she bought it?”

“Not really, but it’s plausible enough and she’s not one to question gift horses.”

“Good enough.”

“It’ll have to be,” she replied before turning serious. “I won’t lie, though, I was a bit disappointed.”

“In me?” I got a sinking feeling where this was going. I glanced around to make sure nobody was close enough to eavesdrop. Fortunately, they were all busy with final prep. “Listen, it’s...”

“No, in how your power affected me ... or didn’t.”

“Not following.”

“I was hoping, y’know, that I’d maybe get a little of your confidence boost along with the fireworks. But nope. I mean, Veronica wears her emotions on her sleeve, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t terrified right now. All of this...” She spread her hands wide. “This is a lot more than anything I’ve ever run into. People are saying this is the end of the world, for Christ’s sake.”

“So they are,” I replied, a sad smile creeping onto my face.

“Anyway, I just wish I was a bit more like you.”

It was all I could do to not laugh. “You don’t think I’m afraid?”

“You’re the Icon.” She held up her fingers in air quotes. “The last blah-blah-blah of humanity.”

“Don’t believe the hype.”

“I thought you were supposed to be fueled by self-confidence, belief. That’s what faith magic is all about.”

“Yeah, and to a degree that’s true.”

Kelly didn’t say anything, an expectant look upon her face. I debated whether or not to go any further.

Oh screw it. She’d trusted me with her secret. In for a penny. Besides, maybe it would do me good to get things off my chest. Having so much expectation heaped on one’s shoulders eventually became a crushing weight. Though I’d only had my power for a relatively short time, I was already tired, oh so tired.

“In the beginning it was. All true, I mean,” I began. “Someone had professed their faith, for lack of a better word, in me and...”

“Who?”

“Don’t interrupt,” I chided. “I thought long and hard about what they said and decided if someone else could believe in me, then it was time to do it myself. That was it. It seemed such a simple thing at first. I woke up the next morning, and it was like I was a different person. I felt different. Heck, I even thought I looked a bit different.” I pointed toward my eyes. “But most importantly, I was unstoppable. I can’t even say I felt that way. I
knew
it.”

I tapped my fingers on the pommel of my sword as I spoke. I hadn’t even realized they’d crept back down there. “For a while, I let it consume me. That new person took over. And you know what?” I lowered my voice, not wanting the Templar to overhear. “It was pretty goddamned awesome. For a while, everything I did seemed to go in my favor. It’s like the old adage, attitude trumps ability.”

“Sounds pretty great.”

“It was. But then, ironically enough, I began to see the chinks in my newfound armor on the very night my powers first manifested.”

I thought back to Bill and I walking along the dark city street, our hands occasionally brushing against each other, but never quite grasping. A small surge of annoyance at this finally pushed me over the edge, and I decided to make the move that I kept waiting for him to make. And then there came the flash of light, the heat. When it cleared, I saw him, but it wasn’t
him.
I’d hurt him, I knew that, but I hesitated to help when I saw the black eyes, the fangs, and – worst of all – the way his skin rippled as if there was something else lurking just beneath it trying to burst free.

It only lasted for a second and then he was gone, tearing down the street at a speed that should have been impossible. I wanted to chase after him, but I stopped when I realized that helping him wasn’t the only thing on my mind. It was crazy, but a part of me embraced what had just happened. I actually wanted to run him down and finish what I’d started. A need to hunt, to fight, and to kill filled me, and all of it seemed focused on him, a gentle soul that had never done me any harm.

“Along with the confidence comes a desire,” I continued, trying to explain without going into either the details or the shame I still felt. “That desire manifests itself as a need for action. Sometimes that action is to help, but sometimes it’s to hurt. The confidence is there, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be frightening, too. Anyway, after that, I sort of lost myself for a while. Days spent trying to figure out what had happened, making sense of it, all while working myself to exhaustion.” Unsaid were the nights spent staring at my phone, my insides warring with me, the rational side wanting to know if Bill was okay, the rest insisting I make sure he wasn’t for reasons that weren’t clear at the time.