slowly, until—
Yes .
That was better. She could hear water now, hear it all around her, from the ocean and the bay and the river, from sewer pipes and water pipes and even the whisper of moisture hanging in the warm summer air.
More flickers of energy flowed into Andy’s awareness. Camille. Camille’s emotions swept across Andy like a sunlit river. Total focus. Total absorption in her purpose. Relaxed. Confident but with definite moments of self-doubt. And there was Bela, more like a cool mountain stream running deep in a rock-lined cavern, strong and determined and aware, perplexed by the data she couldn’t interpret. Dio—Andy held herself steady, but the force of Dio’s feelings nearly knocked her sideways. She couldn’t sort a single emotion from the whirlwind. The woman seemed to be made of wind and weather instead of flesh and flowing blood with its obligatory portion of water.
Andy used her free hand to brace herself against the concrete floor and barely avoided swaying into Camille.
I should … do something .
She tried to ignore that thought, wanted to put it aside but couldn’t. She should act on what she was sensing. She needed to act on it, but she had no idea what to do.
Strengthen Camille’s confidence?
Relax Bela’s tension?
And Dio—well. The best she would be able to do for Dio was make her own energy a buffer between Dio’s inner tempest and everyone else.
The idea of intruding on anyone’s private emotions came close to disgusting Andy. Everything she had been raised to believe, everything she had learned in life, and everything she had always believed to be true argued against doing anything like what she was considering.
Yeah, and until a few years ago, I didn’t believe in demons, either .
She had to keep reminding herself that this was her new life. Andy version 2.0, complete with sister Sibyls and elemental energy and duties to her fighting group.
She allowed her water energy to flow out in small measure. A split second later, a hot shock rippled up her spine as she made contact with Camille’s angst.
Great.
She had no idea what to do next, but a voice in her head almost like Elana’s whispered, Just let it flow .
Andy let her water power touch Camille’s fear and doubt, imagined the water soothing and cooling those emotions until they were nothing more than smoldering bits of debris. Camille’s shiver of surprise and the resultant burst of fiery gratitude felt like a reward. Bela’s earth energy joined the mix, and even a measure of Dio’s wind. Almost at the same time, the four of them relaxed and their energies blended seamlessly, like they had always been part of the same source. A strange kind of harmony settled through Andy, and the corpse she wanted to examine came into crystalline focus.
Her eyes scoured each inch of the mutilated flesh, and bit by bit she pulled more water through her essence, reaching out with the moisture in the air and letting it rest on the body. New images and sensations came to her, from the stink of stale sweat and fear to the copper tang of blood. She saw each ragged edge of each wound anew, and if she’d had a pencil and pad, she might have been able to sketch out which limb got pulled off first and second and so on—she never knew what might end up mattering. All information was relevant.
“Broke his neck first,” she said aloud so they’d all record it in memory. “That feels like the first point of damage. Quick and efficient and strong as hell.”
Her thoughts shivered like ripples across a pond, and her attention focused on the bloodied sleeve pasted against the body’s torso.
Something was there. She couldn’t see it, but her water energy told her foreign matter clung to that sleeve.
“I need tweezers and an evidence bag,” she said, holding her awareness as still and tight as she could. Couldn’t lose this. Whatever it was, it was important.
Camille scooted away from Andy, and someone bent down to hand her
Yes .
That was better. She could hear water now, hear it all around her, from the ocean and the bay and the river, from sewer pipes and water pipes and even the whisper of moisture hanging in the warm summer air.
More flickers of energy flowed into Andy’s awareness. Camille. Camille’s emotions swept across Andy like a sunlit river. Total focus. Total absorption in her purpose. Relaxed. Confident but with definite moments of self-doubt. And there was Bela, more like a cool mountain stream running deep in a rock-lined cavern, strong and determined and aware, perplexed by the data she couldn’t interpret. Dio—Andy held herself steady, but the force of Dio’s feelings nearly knocked her sideways. She couldn’t sort a single emotion from the whirlwind. The woman seemed to be made of wind and weather instead of flesh and flowing blood with its obligatory portion of water.
Andy used her free hand to brace herself against the concrete floor and barely avoided swaying into Camille.
I should … do something .
She tried to ignore that thought, wanted to put it aside but couldn’t. She should act on what she was sensing. She needed to act on it, but she had no idea what to do.
Strengthen Camille’s confidence?
Relax Bela’s tension?
And Dio—well. The best she would be able to do for Dio was make her own energy a buffer between Dio’s inner tempest and everyone else.
The idea of intruding on anyone’s private emotions came close to disgusting Andy. Everything she had been raised to believe, everything she had learned in life, and everything she had always believed to be true argued against doing anything like what she was considering.
Yeah, and until a few years ago, I didn’t believe in demons, either .
She had to keep reminding herself that this was her new life. Andy version 2.0, complete with sister Sibyls and elemental energy and duties to her fighting group.
She allowed her water energy to flow out in small measure. A split second later, a hot shock rippled up her spine as she made contact with Camille’s angst.
Great.
She had no idea what to do next, but a voice in her head almost like Elana’s whispered, Just let it flow .
Andy let her water power touch Camille’s fear and doubt, imagined the water soothing and cooling those emotions until they were nothing more than smoldering bits of debris. Camille’s shiver of surprise and the resultant burst of fiery gratitude felt like a reward. Bela’s earth energy joined the mix, and even a measure of Dio’s wind. Almost at the same time, the four of them relaxed and their energies blended seamlessly, like they had always been part of the same source. A strange kind of harmony settled through Andy, and the corpse she wanted to examine came into crystalline focus.
Her eyes scoured each inch of the mutilated flesh, and bit by bit she pulled more water through her essence, reaching out with the moisture in the air and letting it rest on the body. New images and sensations came to her, from the stink of stale sweat and fear to the copper tang of blood. She saw each ragged edge of each wound anew, and if she’d had a pencil and pad, she might have been able to sketch out which limb got pulled off first and second and so on—she never knew what might end up mattering. All information was relevant.
“Broke his neck first,” she said aloud so they’d all record it in memory. “That feels like the first point of damage. Quick and efficient and strong as hell.”
Her thoughts shivered like ripples across a pond, and her attention focused on the bloodied sleeve pasted against the body’s torso.
Something was there. She couldn’t see it, but her water energy told her foreign matter clung to that sleeve.
“I need tweezers and an evidence bag,” she said, holding her awareness as still and tight as she could. Couldn’t lose this. Whatever it was, it was important.
Camille scooted away from Andy, and someone bent down to hand her
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