PRESENT TIME
LILY
No matter how many times I get into these flying carts, I'm always afraid I'm going to fall. The city looks dangerously sharp from this angle. Crystal may look pretty, but it isn't something to mess with.
"Ruby's all back to normal," Addy tells me happily. "The scales never came back. They still want to keep her a while longer, but they trust that she won't escape now. They don't have anyone guarding her door anymore. Actually, Dr Carron said she's been looking for any excuse to stay at the hospital, now that it's at the centre of a murder investigation. She even faked a cough this morning."
I roll my eyes. Everyone else is trying to avoid Zilitron General, and this girl's trying everything not to leave. I don't see the appeal of sharing residence with a serial killer.
I'm trying my best to put my fear of heights aside and focus. It's easier with my eyes closed. At least that way I don't feel like I'm dangling from the moon.
Most of the energy in Zilitron is still. It's late enough now that even the most dedicated of business executives have packed up and left for home. As I feel my way through the streets with my mind, I come across a variety of energy signatures. The energy of the Zilitron Bank towers is slick and sharp, like wet crystal. Crystal Corp is more of a shimmer, like powdered gemstones dusting the night air. I can even feel the energy of starlight, cool and misty and distant.
The energy of living things is more complex. Everyone has their own distinct signature, and it's coloured by their mood and what they're doing. There's a stray dog napping on top of a flattened box of cardboard. Its energy hums with loyalty, joy and curiosity. Right now there's a mist of comfort suffused throughout it, amid the colourful glints of dreams.
Humans though...they're hard to explain. There are so many layers there, I couldn't possibly sift through them all. A person's energy as a whole can't really be described. It just feels like them.
There's a signature just like that stalking the alleyways behind a shopping complex not far from where we are.
It's ancient.
It's dark.
Yet, it's strangely familiar.
Where have I felt this energy signature before?
"Addy," I say quietly. "Behind the Gala. And dim your engines."
We creep up on the culprit with our lights off. Addy can't see to manoeuvre, so I have to guide her with my energy-sensing.
The being I sensed is here. It stands over another figure, which is still on the ground. Yet, the still figure's life energy is moving. Draining upwards in a way I've never felt human energy move, draining into the other energy signature. It's being absorbed.
I reach over Addy and punch the lights back on.
Addy gasps.
There's a body on the ground, a human body. It's lifeless. A woman this time, here makeup smeared with blood.
But that's not what freezes my bones.
It's the person standing over her, breathing with heavy delight.
Golden eyes smoulder like a pair of dying suns.
A hospital gown flutters in the breeze.
It's Ruby.