Blood Red

Boyd looked around, surprised by the ferocity of the weather’s assault, but he was looking at Soulis when the man opened his eyes. He was looking at the black pools of shadow where his eyes should have been and he was fully aware that at exactly the same time the man looked back at him the downpour stopped.

“What the fuck?”

“Precisely, Detective. That was just a little water. Imagine what I could do if I decided to get creative.”

Pee Wee made an inquisitive gesture, wanting to know if he should attempt an arrest. Boyd nodded slightly and the man grabbed Soulis by the arm, wrenching backward.

Soulis let him, his smile getting a touch more pronounced.

“Must we, Detective Boyd?”

“Yeah, I’m afraid so. I don’t know what the hell you’re doing or how, but it stops now.”

“No.” Blackness crept from the man’s skin, spilling from him like heat from a fire, engulfing his entire body. Boyd took aim, uncertain what to do. He couldn’t just fire; he’d hit a trooper. The darkness expanded outward until Soulis was completely hidden. A heartbeat later it began to contract, collapsing inward until it simply vanished. Soulis was gone with it, leaving Pee Wee holding the cuffs he’d already wrapped around the man’s wrists. The cuffs were still closed.

“Shit on this!” Boyd looked around and saw Danny doing the same thing. He had a migraine starting and he was not amused by the disappearing trick.

“Where the hell did he go?” Pee Wee was having a little trouble with the notion that his perp had just vanished.

“Well you’re the one that had his hands on the guy, you tell me!” Boyd glared.

“Screw you! You saw it too! He just disappeared.” The trooper didn’t look at all happy about the turn of events. He looked scared (maybe) and pissed off (definitely) but happy wasn’t a part of his expression.

“Let’s just all stop freaking out here.” Leave it to Danny to try placating the troopers.

“Dennison, call HQ and tell them we need backup. This is fucked up beyond all repair,” Pee Wee called out and one of the troopers with him headed back for his car.

The lightning bolt stopped him. The world turned brilliantly white and Boyd covered his eyes as the flash went off. The explosion of thunder shook the bones in his body and half deafened him, leaving his ears ringing even as his eyes tried to adjust.

When he could see again, Trooper Dennison was a burnt ruin on the ground. His badge was glowing white hot and his pistol looked like it had melted into its holster.

Most of Boyd’s body felt like he’d been fried alive. He knew he wasn’t deeply injured, but the current had carried far enough to send his nervous system into a frenzy. He could barely get any part of his body to respond to the simplest commands.

The little girl was crying her eyes out. He couldn’t blame her. Danny reached over and pulled the girl into his arm, settling her on his hip. She wrapped herself around him like a constrictor, her legs and hand pulling him as close as physically possible.

“You’re okay, sweetie. It’s all going to be okay.” He could just hear Danny’s words over the reverberations still bouncing around in his skull.

What the fuck are we dealing with here? This guy can’t be for real. He had no doubt that somehow Soulis had caused the lightning.

The two state troopers ran to their fallen friend. He was dead; Boyd knew it as sure as he knew his name.

“Danny?”

“Yeah, Richie?”

“You hand Jayce over to the troopers.” He looked at Pee Wee. “Hey! You need to get this little girl home for me, all right?”

“What?” Pee Wee had been even closer to the blast and he was having a little trouble hearing anything.

Jayce was clinging to Danny, and when she heard the plan she started crying again. The kid couldn’t make up her mind.

Before another word was spoken, both of the troopers ran for their cars. He couldn’t blame them; this was the weirdest shit he’d ever encountered.

Jason Soulis was standing in his front yard, staring down at them. His smile was darker than before and even through the heavy fog, he could tell the man was looking right at him. He hadn’t been there two seconds before, Boyd would have bet on it.

“Are we finishing this, Detective Boyd? Or are you going to leave this alone?”

Boyd looked at Danny and Danny looked back.

Both of them looked toward Soulis and pointed their pistols.

“Jason Soulis, you are under arrest.” To make his point very clear, Richard Boyd opened fire and so did his partner.

II

Hunter Williamson had been a state trooper for almost two decades. He liked the job and he loved the people he worked with. Stewart Dennison had been with the force for eight years, and he had been a good man.

So he was a little upset by the notion that a man who could disappear at will and cause rain storms just by thinking about it had just killed a good friend.

There was no denying what he had seen with his own eyes. The man he’d had in cuffs was responsible for what had just happened; he had no doubt of that at all.