Excerpt
NSA Special Agent Rachel Alton counted to three. Frank, her partner of five years, pushed open the door. The stench of rotting food rode the blast of air leading into the house. I Graffiti of dark shadows and faceless eyes covered the walls. Two halves of the same force, they scanned the immediate area and continued down the hallway, listening closely for any sign of life. Frank signaled that he would go left.

Rachel nodded, taking the second door on the right. She pushed open the door with her foot. Her heart pounding, Rachel cleared the room, finding no sign of the kidnapped child. Kevin just turned eight, and his parents were hard working middle class citizens. No ransom note of demands emerged. This monster wanted Kevin for a very different reason, his gift, an extrasensory perception and source of powerful psychic energy. Rachel discovered a psychic vampire as the abductor. They fed on the psychic energy of others and Kevin would be a meal fit for a king.

Rachel pulled on the next door. It whined as if in pain, and she cringed at the eerie sound. The air, stale and dust-filled, moved in waves like smoke while the floor creaked with her every step. From the scattered garbage, empty beers bottles and cigarette butts, she thought it fair that the local teens used this as a place to party away from their parents.
Rachel exited the living room, toward the bedrooms. She passed the kitchen. The appliances had been removed, leaving only the skeletal remains of exposed tubing and wiring. She saw two bedrooms ahead. The first on her left consisted only of a mangled mattress and broken glass from a since-boarded window. A few steps further and she gazed into the second room.

An ashtray and a few beer bottles, but otherwise, empty. She felt the gentle heat of a warm glow. A blue haze came from behind a closed closet door.

Rachel heard a small whimper. She froze in place, her breath lying still in her chest. A cry of pain echoed in her mind. Kevin. She reached for the doorknob, the door creaked and two beams of light shot into the room. Rachel immediately raised her shields in alarm. The two beams materialized, grabbing her by the arms. The pain hit her all at once as the floating lights singed her skin and her nerves screamed. The door pushed open and her legs were pulled out from beneath her. Her back and shoulders bounced off the wooden floor and her mind spun.

“Frank!” She recovered and moved as far away as the arms of light would allow, another flash of light erupted from just beyond her feet. She saw two hands reaching for her and she grasped them tightly in her own.

Kevin…

The top of the closet radiated light into the room and with it came tentacles of light that leapt outward, wrapping around her legs and dragging her toward the shining abyss. She hauled the boy’s small form onto her chest, while struggling to break free. Using her abilities, she sent wave after wave of psi ammunition at the entity and watched as it had no effect.

The glowing tentacles unexpectedly released her arms and reattached themselves to her legs. Rachel kept one arm around the listless child, the other grabbed aimlessly for anything to slow the wanting forces. An ear-piercing bellow from the closet consumed the room as she continued to struggle.