Embraced By Darkness (Riley Jenson Guardian 5)

Was it this morning that I'd left my weapon locked up, refusing to carry its weight, feeling safer without it?

But now was not the time to worry about such things, because something was coming.

Awareness skittered along the outer reaches of my psychic senses, a darkness that was all power, all hate.

Wilson.

And he was approaching fast.

I scanned the night, trying to pinpoint his position, wondering what he was doing. What he was planning. Marg and her crew might have succeeded in summoning him, but he was fighting all the way.

Brightness speared the trees, twin spotlights that momentarily blinded. I blinked, saw the sweep of them move on as the car followed the road. But how had it gotten in here? We'd acquired the code to the main gates and had locked up after ourselves. The cemetery itself wasn't open to the public at this hour. No vehicles besides our own should have been in here.

As the car drew closer, the roar of the engine became clearer. It was being revved hard, the driver gunning it as he sped around corners. No sane person drove like that in a cemetery. He had to be under the influence - and I didn't think that influence was alcohol.

"I think we've got a problem." I flexed the fingers of my free hand and shifted my stance a little.

"Wilson is here?" the third magi asked softly.

"I think he might be."

"Think? That's not good enough."

Annoyance rose through the tension. "Hey, you're the people doing the summoning. Why the hell haven't you got some means of knowing if he is or isn't in the area?"

"Because that takes more energy, and given the apparent strength of this soul, we need all the power we can get for containment. Which is why you're here."

Another reason to wish I couldn't communicate with the dead. I'd avoid situations like this.

The lights cut through the trees again, closer and sharper than before. I squinted against their brightness and raised the laser, "I think it highly likely that the driver of the car coming toward us is controlled by Wilson."

"Then stop the car."

"Easier said than done, lady," I muttered. Especially when there was a human life in that car. I didn't want to kill him if it was at all possible.

The car broke free of the trees. The front was smashed in, the hood scrunched up, and the windshield shattered. Bits of roses and other plants hung off what remained of the grill, and metal bits trailed along the ground, raising sparks. He'd obviously driven right through the gates rather then opening them.

The driver gunned the engine again and die car lurched sharply toward us, crashing over the curb and onto the grass. I switched to infrared, sighted on the front tire, and pressed the laser's trigger. Blue light slashed across die night, hitting the tire and slicing straight through. The sharp smell of burned rubbed filled the air as the car slewed sideways, crashing over a gravestone before it ploughed nose first into a tree. The engine gave a final splutter then died, and the hiss of steam began to fill the air.

There was no movement from the driver, and I hoped like hell the crash hadn't killed him. The sense of evil - of anger and fury - was very much alive, however, and it sharpened abruptly even as I stood there.

"He's here," I said, and wished it didn't sound like we were all in the middle of some B-grade horror movie.

"Where, precisely?" the third magi said.

"If I knew for sure, I'd tell you."

"I thought you could see souls?"

"I can. This one is just hiding." I stepped sideways, trying to get a better view of the car and the driver.

He was alive, thankfully, because he was breathing. But whether he was knocked out, or merely waiting for the unwary to step into his web was something I couldn't tell from where I stood.

Which meant I'd have to move again.

And I so didn't want to get any closer to that thick scent of anger and death.

I edged sideways a little more. The driver was big, hairy, and, even from this distance, smelled human. Meaning he was a threat only in the way all men with big fists were a threat.