Kyle turned back to his ally spirit, somewhat disturbed by the discussion. "You've never been able to do that before."
Seeks-the-Moon nodded. "I've not been allowed to."
"Not been allowed to!" said Kyle. “This is getting absurd."
Seeks-the-Moon held up his hand again, and it seemed to be shaking slightly. "Please, I understand this less than you and find it equally disturbing. All I know is that Mitchell Truman was not attacked by a vampire."
"Then what?"
"It was a spirit, yes," Seeks-the-Moon said, "but when it tried to devour his soul and failed, the boy went mad."
"His soul?" asked Doctor Douglas.
"His primal spirit, his Self, his ka-the names are endless," said the spirit. "But I do not believe the spirit wanted his soul, rather it wanted his body. His soul was simply in the way."
"A failed possession?" asked the doctor.
Seeks-the-Moon shrugged. "I don't know. I've told you what I sense."
"That would explain much about-"
A ball of deep blue and white exploded into the room, moving at blinding speed, hitting Kyle in the chest and rebounding across the room. Instantly, a gray-green shield sprung up around him as he tried to protect himself from another attack. Seeks-the-Moon moved with the speed of thought across the room and placed himself between the ball of energy and Mitchell Truman.
"MASTER!" the ball screeched as it careened across the room, finally slowing to a comprehensible speed.
"Delta?" said Kyle as he lowered his hands.
"I FOUND YOU! I FOUND YOU!" the watcher spirit squealed as it quickly hovered near him.
"Great Coyote," muttered Seeks-the-Moon, relaxing.
"I told Charlotte I could find you!" It darted around him, obviously pleased with itself. "She didn't think I could! But I did!"
"Yes, you did, Delta," Kyle said sternly. "Now why did you come here?"
The watcher spirit paused and regarded him wide-eyed. "Um…"
"Delta…"
"Oh!" it said, bouncing again. "Charlotte said another spirit came!"
"Another spirit?"
"Yes!"
"Did she fight it?"
"I don't know." The watcher sounded concerned that it didn't know. "She just told me to find you!"
Kyle sighed. “That's good. Delta. You did fine."
It jumped into the air again. "I told her I could! I told her I could!"
Kyle turned to Seeks-the-Moon. "I'm going to see about the Trumans," he said. "Guard my body and the boy's while I'm gone."
The spirit nodded. "Of course."
Kyle sat down in one of the room's chairs and relaxed. He turned his astral senses inward and examined his own body and spirit. His form was tired, running on hyperkaf and adrenaline, but soon that would not be enough. His spirit, however, was alight with energy. He willed himself to be solely spirit, to loosen the connection to his physical body and float free, and he did.
Kyle's spirit separated, and he stepped clear of his body and into astral space. The room, filled with plants, was bright with life. Both Seeks-the-Moon and Doctor Douglas also glowed warm, strong, and healthy. Mitchell Truman was the only living source not radiating brightly. He was dim, a meat shell barely holding life.
Seeks-the-Moon, who could sense simultaneously in both the physical and astral realms, regarded Kyle in his astral form. As an expression of Kyle's idealized self-image, his astral shape sparked energy off its lean, muscular form. For a moment he was unmasked and his aura showed all his potential as a mage initiated into the higher mysteries of the world. A single throbbing silver cord connected his astral body with his physical one. He knew he could see that connection clearly now, but as he moved away from his body, the cord would dim into insubstantiality.
“I’ll be back quickly," he told Seeks-the-Moon, and the spirit nodded.
Kyle turned toward the window, which, along with its frame, was dull and lifeless in astral space. His astral form would be able to pass through it easily. The plants in the room, however, being now or once alive, he'd have to fly over.
And fly he did with the speed of thought.
10
Kyle flew out beyond the medical facility and high into the still-dark morning air. The city was alive beneath him, stretching away in a glowing haze to the north, west, and south. To the east it abutted the vivid glow of Lake Michigan, which hummed with life almost as brightly as the city.
Kyle also saw many patches of dark, places in the city where the creations of man were strong enough to dominate the living auras that inhabited them. The Shattergraves of old downtown Chicago was a dark blight, a scar across what had once been the heart of the city. That, however, was not Kyle's destination, but Truman Tower, still south of him.
He soared that way, high above the city, which passed as a prismatic blur beneath him. The Tower soon loomed before him, cold and dim in astral space, but recognizable by its shape and location. Dim patches of life could be seen emanating from within it, but the non-living obviously dominated.
Kyle shot toward the penthouse and entered through the lakeside windows that opened into what the Trumans used as their family room. Seated on the central couches were Melissa and her sister Madeleine, whom Kyle had met only in passing at the hospital. She was older by nearly a decade than either Melissa or Mitchell, and was lighter of complexion as well as build.
Entering the room, he hovered there as Charlotte also entered from the floor below. She braked to a quick stop in front of him.
"Master," came the reverberations of her voice through astral space. "The watcher found you!"
"What happened?" Kyle asked her.
"The area you told me to guard was entered by another spirit," the elemental told him. "I sensed it and moved to strike at it, but it sensed me also and fled before I could reach it. I did not pursue, as you did not instruct me to."
"No, you did well. Did you see what it was?"
"I could not," Charlotte replied. "Its coloration was dark."
"Dark?" asked Kyle. "It was weak?"
"No, it was powerful, but its colors were dark."
That puzzled Kyle. He'd never heard of any spirit with dark coloration. Then again, there were many things about this that he-
Something was wrong. The two women had stood up and were backing away across the room, frightened by something in his vicinity. He turned and looked behind, but saw only the dark opacity of the plasteel windows. He and Charlotte were the only beings present in the room beside Melissa and Madeleine.
Of course. He was unmasked and radiating power, which meant he was probably leaking some of that energy into the physical world, and Charlotte's presence was probably compounding the problem. The result was undoubtedly an area of haze or distortion hanging in the room. Between the two of them they might even be dumping off enough energy into the physical world to make the area glow slightly.
"We need to manifest," he told Charlotte.
"Very well," the spirit said grudgingly.
Kyle willed his astral form into synchrony with the physical world, and then allowed himself to appear there, ghostly and insubstantial. It was the best he could manage while he was a spirit without body.
The women were startled, and began to race toward the nearest doorway. Kyle held out his hand. "Melissa, Madeleine!" he called. "It's all right. It's Kyle Teller!"
They paused a moment as the more familiar form, at least for Melissa, of Charlotte appeared next to him. Slowly, recognition dawned on Melissa's face, though Madeleine still seemed frightened.