Obsidian Butterfly - Laurell K. Hamilton [55]
I pulled my shields around me like clutching a coat against a blizzard, but strangely it had backed off. Though if that one swat of power was any indication, it could slice me, dice me, and serve me on toast if it wanted to. It hadn’t wanted to. I was glad, thrilled, but why hadn’t it hurt me worse? How had I sensed it from so far away, and how had it sensed me? Usually, my greatest talent is with the dead. Did that mean whatever “it” was, was dead, or had something to do with the dead? Or was this one of the new psychic abilities that my teacher, Marianne, had warned me might crop up. God, I hoped not. I didn’t need more strange shit in my life. I had plenty.
I forced myself to stop the useless cursing, and said, “Put up the gun, Edward. I’m all right. Besides, there’s nothing to shoot and nothing to see.”
He put a hand under my arm and pulled me to my feet before I was ready. I’d have been very happy to stay sitting for a while. I leaned on him, and he started moving us back towards the car. I stumbled and finally had to tell him, “Stop, please.”
He held me up, still searching the new dark, gun still in hand. I should have known he’d keep the gun out. It was his security blanket—sometimes.
I could breathe again, and if Edward stopped dragging me on, I might be able to walk. The fear had faded because it was useless. I’d tried a bit of “magic,” and I hadn’t been good enough. I was learning ritual magic, but I was a beginner. Power isn’t enough. You’ve got to know what to do with it, like a gun with the safety on. It makes a fine paperweight, but that’s about it unless you know what to do with it.
I slid into the car, had my door closed and locked before Edward opened his door. “Tell me what happened, Anita.”
I looked at him. “It would serve you right if I just looked at you and smiled.”
Something crossed his face, a frown, a snarl, quickly lost to that perfect blankness he could manage. “You’re right. I’ve been a secret-loving bastard, and it would serve me right. But you’re the one who said we needed to stop the pissing contest and solve the crime. I’ll stop if you will.”
I nodded. “Agreed.”
“So,” he said.
“Start the car and get us out of here.” Somehow I didn’t like sitting on the nearly deserted road in the freshly spilled darkness. I wanted to be moving. Sometimes movement gives you the illusion that you’re doing something.
Edward started the car, turned around in the weeds and drove back towards the highway. “Talk.”
“I’ve never been to this area before. For all I know what I sensed is always here, just some local bugaboo.”
“What did you sense?”
“Something powerful. Something that’s miles away towards Santa Fe. Something that may be connected to the dead in some way, which would explain why it called to me so strongly. I’m going to need to find a good local psychic to see if this thing is always around or not.”
“Donna will know some psychics. Whether they’re good, I can’t say, and I’m not sure she can either.”
“It’s a place to start,” I said. I snuggled into my seatbelt, hugging myself. “You got any local animators, necromancers, anyone who works with the dead? If it is something connected to my type of power, then an ordinary psychic might not sense it.”
“I don’t know of any, but I’ll ask around.”
“Good.”
We were back out on the highway. The night was very dark, as if thick clouds hid the sky. The headlights seemed very yellow against the blackness.
“Do you think this whatever-it-is has anything to do with the mutilations?” he asked.
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know a hell of a lot,” he said. He sounded grumpy.
“That’s the problem with psychic shit and magic. Sometimes it’s not very helpful.”
“I’ve never seen you do anything like what you