A huge bright golden light blinded and deafened me as he disappeared, and abruptly I was tossed backward and landed on a cold, hard floor. I looked up, blinking at the fluorescent lights, and recognized the smells. Morgue again.
TC was hovering over me, as were Joe and Rhonda.
“She’s human again,” Rhonda said.
Joe nodded. You okay?
“No,” I said aloud, as it felt like every nerve ending in my body had gone to sleep. That whole pins-and-needles thing. “But it’s not like it was with Mialani.”
“Of course not,” TC said as he offered his hand and pulled me up. His touch made the tingling sensation go away as I stood. Jason and Lex were near the body and I didn’t need to take a peek inside to know the Symbiont and the host’s soul were gone. Lex was sobbing. Jason looked . . . worried.
Why does he look like that?
“Why is that?” Rhonda was looking at TC, her stance a bit tense as she faced him. “Why was it so bad for her to release the ghoul and not the First Born?”
“Two different somethings,” TC said as he stepped back. He was looking at me, and I realized I wasn’t in Wraith form anymore but just plain Zoë. “Ghouls are abominations. Souls trapped within dying bodies, and the blood of a Revenant is what keeps it together. Otherwise, it would break down like it was meant to do.” He looked at Rhonda with his shaded eyes. “But a Revenant possesses the body, envelops it and fuses with the host soul. It’s not what you would call natural for this world, but more natural than the ghouls. Releasing the ghoul causes loss of essence from the Wraith. But release of the First Born . . .” He looked at me and gave me a half smile. “The Revenant gives up a part of itself to her for that release. As well as its place in this physical world.” He glanced back at Lex. “Oh, knock it off, Yamato. Aether can’t hear you anymore.”
“Fuck you. You’re the abomination. The betrayer.”
I sighed. This is gonna be a long night.
Joe moved into my line of sight. Ah, a cooling sight for a starving girl. You learn anything?
And always the detective.
I shook my head. “No. Aether said they didn’t see the attacker. It came while they slept and wrapped itself around them. They were locked in unconsciousness while it was happening.” Or that was how I interpreted it.
Lex wiped at her face. “So they couldn’t tell you what it was?”
“He said it was both,” I looked at Lex. “Abysmal and Ethereal.”
That got everyone’s attention. In fact, they were all staring at me. “What?”
“Zoë,” Rhonda stepped forward. “There aren’t many creatures from both planes. That contain both essences.” She glanced at Joe. “There are two. There’s you.”
Uh-oh.
“And there’s one other,” TC said with gritted teeth. “That damned book boy.”
Oh hell.
Dags.
15
WE didn’t talk much more in the morgue after that. Especially since the body started releasing a whole bunch of toxic gases on its way to goo-land. Once the Revenant and the host’s soul were gone, there was nothing keeping it together, so back to its primordial elements it went.
Gross.
We drove back home in silence. The moon was up high in the clear sky over Atlanta. I craned my neck in the backseat to get a better look at it. The clock in Jason’s dash read 9:42. My thoughts strayed to Daniel.
Where is he?
What is he doing?
Is he running for his life, hurting other people? Or himself?
Have they caught him yet?
Does he still hate me so much to want me dead?
I think most people would see me as stupid to be worrying about a crazy guy. Especially one who had tried to kill me and succeeded in killing his friend and boss. But Daniel’s insanity was partially my fault. I’d brought him into my life, and he’d paid that price. And when I thought about Dags and what he’d gone through, I had to wonder if his knowing me had anything to do with the situation in which he found himself.
Being a book and all.
But then again, he was shooting light out of his palms before we ever met at Fadó’s.
Whatever was happening, I refused to believe it had anything to do with him. It wasn’t possible. The girls—his Familiars, Alice and Maureen—would never allow it.
But if that was true . . . then why had Alice come to me in that dream?
The argument with Lex in the morgue before we left returned as well. And I really wanted to hammer Joe in the head for being so damned loyal to Lex.
“Oh . . .” And her eyes had lit up. “I remember him. He shone brightly the last time we met. But—I never understood why. Why is he like that?” she’d asked after I had blurted out his name.
Rhonda had remained quiet, as had I. But Joe?
What an idiot.
He’d relayed the state of Dags’s existence to Lex the same way he had to me. It was obvious Yamato could hear him. And I could hear him as well, like overhearing a conversation in the next room.
Dags was accidentally made into a secondary watcher during a botched ritual by a magician named Bonville. He possesses two Familiars who balance out the Abysmal and the Ethereal. Bonville owned a Grimoire passed down in his wife’s family. But there was a nasty group of people called L-6, who wanted that Grimoire, led by a man named Rodriguez. He learned that Rhonda had the book in safekeeping and kidnapped Dags as leverage. Dags was tortured violently, and, in order to save his life . . . Joe had sighed, and I could sense he was still a bit put out by what Rhonda had done. To save his life, Rhonda used one of the spells in the Grimoire to fuse Dags with the book.
Lex’s eyes had widened as she looked at Rhonda with an almost renewed awe. “You are truly a witch. A bender of things. Wicce.”
Rhonda had looked uncomfortable.
“This is interesting,” Jason had said, rubbing one finger against his jawline. “This individual has a Grimoire fused into his soul’s grounding to his physical body.”
Rhonda had nodded. “I thought it was the best place to hide it from Rodriguez at the time.”
At the time, yeah, but a month or so later, that man, Rodriguez, had exploded in my mom’s bedroom, with TC’s help, from the inside out.
I had not liked cleaning that mess up.
Ew.
Jason had moved closer to Rhonda. “Does he have access to the spells?”
“I think he does.” She had looked at him. “Oh, Jason, you don’t think this spell is in that Grimoire, do you?”
He’d shrugged. “We’d need to find out. Clear his name.”
“I want him,” Lex had said as she’d come to stand by Jason. “I will take the book.”
“No, you won’t,” I’d heard myself say. Ooh. Whups. That was my outside voice. “You won’t touch a hair on his head. Got it?” And where exactly is this bravado coming from?
She’d glared at me. “If I find he is responsible for this, I will do as I please.”
“No.” I’d moved closer to her and shifted, the Wraith coming to the front. I’d been a little worried at how easy this was getting to be. “You touch him, you deal with me.”
Jason had easily slid between us. And I had to admit we’d probably looked like odd opponents. Lex with her beautiful Asian Amazonian looks and me with my weird, gray, winged self. “Both of you, stop it. We have no proof this man is involved at all. We will simply set up an appointment to see him and find out.” He’d turned to Rhonda. “He works for you, right?”
She’d nodded. But I had seen in her face she wasn’t happy.
That was when we’d left. Noxious gas. Left Lex to clean it up.
Good riddance.
Even as we entered the house, I was still feeling a bit conflicted about Dags. Unsure what was happening. The description Aether had given me sounded a lot like that thing TC and I had encountered. But TC had been able to diffuse it. Send it on its way. And he was a much younger Symbiont than Aether. But then, TC h
ad never joined with a human soul.
Though . . . he had touched one.
Mine.
Oh hell, I wish someone would fucking make up a guidebook or a sourcebook on this freak’n game and let me read it!
Jason and Nick went into the botanica as I went to the refrigerator and grabbed a pint of Starbucks Java Chip. I’d wanted to go take a long bath and sort through this, but apparently Mom, Rhonda, and Joe had different plans.
I put Tim’s rock back where it belonged, and he appeared near the fireplace. He looked thoughtful, and I didn’t disturb him. He’d talk to me when he was ready. He’d witnessed it all.
Mom had tea ready, and we all sat in the botanica. I was in my papasan and refused to touch that tea. I wanted my stomach intact, and the Java Chip was improving my mood epically.
Rhonda was in the kitchen on her cell phone. Jason and Nick hugged each other near the door. Nick waved at me, went to Nona and gave her a kiss on the cheek as well as a hug, and then left the house. A few minutes later, I heard a car start up outside.
I looked over at Jason. “You two have a spat?”
He shook his head. But it was Mom who answered. “He wants Nick as far away from here as possible. After what happened to Mialani”—she looked at the Revenant with a sad expression—“I don’t blame him. Nick’s too precious to lose.”
“It would . . .” Jason fixed his gaze on me. “It would destroy me.”
Mom settled in her high-backed chair as Joe plopped down on the couch. Jason moved to stand by the fireplace, an imposing if not handsome picture.
“Okay, I’ve left a message,” Rhonda said as she came into the room. “But he hasn’t been answering my calls right away.”
At least he answers them. Putz.
Rhonda pointed at Jason. “You get Nick out of here?”
Jason nodded.
“Good. That’s one less person we have to worry about.”
“So,” Mom began. “My daughter.”
Uh-oh.
“When were you going to tell us about this new ability you seem to have? You can go Wraith without going OOB?”
I smiled at her. “Actually, I wanted to surprise you.”
“Consider us surprised,” Rhonda said as she moved to sit on the couch beside Joe. “Care to regale us with the tales of you sans OOB, now that we have a moment to listen?”
I looked at her. “Sorry.”
“So when did this happen?”
I looked at Mom. “Shortly after Cooper was killed. I wanted to go to the morgue and make sure he was really gone—and not trapped—”
“Why—had you seen him?”
“No. I just wanted to make sure, okay? And when I tried to go OOB”—I shrugged—“poof. I did it in body.”
“Interesting,” Jason said. “And the Archer? I’m sure everyone would like to hear about your apparent relationship with the betrayer.”
“TC?” Mom looked at me with wide eyes. “Zoë—”
“Look”—I held out my hands—“TC has been helping me learn how to use my power as a Wraith, okay? He’s done nothing wrong here.”
“You trust him?” Rhonda said.
“Hell no,” I lied. Because in a really fucked-up way, I did trust him. And I had no idea why. Though now that I understood his existence a bit more, things were starting to fall into place. “But he’s taught me a lot about flying, about fighting, and about sensing Abysmal creatures. And he’s basically healed me twice.”
“Well, that’s because you’re almost like a host to him,” Rhonda said, “if I’m understanding all of this right. But he’s only doing it because you give him power.”
Well, we kinda knew that anyway so—
Wait a minute.
I felt my eyes widen as that point drove itself home. I looked at Joe and Rhonda, who were both looking at me the same way. We all realized that Lex and even Aether had said that by fusing with a human soul, they’d diminished themselves. But by touching me, TC had grown stronger.
When I put this to Jason, he frowned at me as if I were six. “You already know the answer to that. Because you were an Irin. Not just a normal human.”
Oh. Yeah. That’s right.
Nuts.
“But Jason,” Rhonda prodded. “If TC became that much more powerful simply by touching Zoë—and he is a First Born—then why hasn’t he ever tried to fuse with her? What kind of creature would that create?”
Uhm . . . yikes?
I looked at Joe. He was staring at me. And I wasn’t sure I liked the look in his eyes. What?
Nothing, he said back to me. I’m just thinking.
“I’m not sure what would happen,” Jason said. “But I’m not positive I want to find out. Zoë.” He looked at me.
I pulled my gaze from Joe and peered suspiciously at Jason. “Uh-huh.”
“Has Archer at any time actually tried to join with you?”
I pursed my lips. “Define join.”
“I’m not talking about sex, Zoë.”
Well, that silenced the room. Tadah. Thank ye, I’ll be here all week.
Mom sighed. “Honestly, she gets that from her father.”
Oh, now you talk about him, Miss Former Burlesque Dancer. “Honestly, Jason, he’s never broached the subject. It seems whatever it was he wanted, he took from me that second encounter, when it looked like I’d died.” I’d had no memory of what’d happened for those hours prior to waking up in that drawer/box in the morgue. Not immediately.
But over time, and with a bit of prodding from Mr. Trench Coat himself—things had become crystal clear. We’d had sex. And a lot of it. And I had enjoyed the hell out of it. Which really pissed me off.
But in hindsight, if he’d ever taken anything from me except my voice, I never knew it.
“Can you call him here?” Jason asked.
“In my house?” Mom thundered. I was sure Mom was less than eager to see him, seeing as he’d yanked her out of that man-made, man-parts puppet that Bertram and Charolette had stuffed her into. TC had never apologized for that. In fact, he felt no remorse. Especially after possessing her body to communicate with me.
That was gross.
I’d never told Mom about that. Didn’t plan on it either. I was sure the woman would insist on some Indian voodoo ritual inner-body cleansing, and I just wasn’t in the mood to eat dates and flax-seed. God, I need to get my own place again.
I looked at Jason. “I don’t think that’s such a good idea. But I can ask him.”
“You really think he’ll be truthful?” Rhonda asked.
“No,” Jason and I said in unison.
“Jinx!” I shouted at him.
He grinned but kept quiet.
I liked him.
“I will ask him, though.” My stomach growled at that moment, and I put my hand on my middle and set the empty ice-cream container on the hearth beside me. Mom had cakes and cookies, but I wanted real food. I hadn’t really eaten much of anything since I woke up. “I want a pizza.”
“A pizza?” Rhonda said. “Sounds really good.”
“We could head down to Savage,” Jason said. “They’re open till ten thirty.”
I grinned. A vampire who loves pizza. “With garlic.”
He matched my smile. “Always.”
Well, that blew that myth right out of the water.
Walking around the corner onto Moreland to get to Savage was kinda fun. Just the four of us. Mom insisted she had work to do and was on the phone with the Geriatric Scooby Gang when we left. Tim bowed out when I grabbed his rock, and it made me wonder if he had to come when I took the rock or was it just simply like an express train to wherever I was.
We got a bench table in the front. I ordered pepperoni, Rhonda and Joe got a sausage, and Jason ordered a white-cheese pizza. A couple of Cokes and we were seated and talking. Sometimes it was just good to get out of the shop and away from Mom’s potions and herbs.
Not to mention those wacky wards she had up that tended to twist my stoma
ch sometimes.
Joe sat back in his chair, turned sideways with his Coke. He’d gotten really quiet inside my head, and that was spooky. I wanted to know what he was thinking, but that would be me overshadowing him, which means he’d fight me, which means I’d have to go OOB—
Wait.
Or would I?
How does that work with this new power?
Is it necessary to be noncorporeal? Or can it be done while Wraith?
Oh . . . so many questions. And for the first time since this whole ride began, I was interested. Really interested.
Jason spoke up as he sipped his Coke. It was interesting watching him do this. It was like each sip was ecstasy. “We have four bodies. Two were human, one a ghoul, one was a Revenant. All of them had a form of this ritual applied to them. But we know it wasn’t the right ritual or the full ritual because the First Born wasn’t obliterated.”
“The big question is who is doing this?”
“Well, I’d say first off it’s the Phantasm,” Jason said. “I’ve been on the phone with three of the others discussing the possibility. And since all the deaths are centered here in Atlanta, we’ve come to the conclusion that it centers around the Wraith.”
Hrm. Hadn’t considered that myself. But it was odd that all these killings were here in the South, when I was sure the Revenants were all over the world. But, to think it was because of me?
Naw.
Really?
“Why do you think that?” Rhonda said. “I’m more inclined to believe it has to do with Archer.”
Jason nodded. “The two Revenants I spoke with had letters delivered to them, telling them the spell had been discovered here, in Atlanta, and they had a chance to destroy it once and for all.”
Me, Joe, and Rhonda, we all looked at him as if he’d grown a third eyeball. “You are kidding me,” Rhonda said. “Have you called all of them? All the remaining Revenants?”
He nodded. “I have, and three have responded. The others are talking to each other.” Jason had a frown on his face as he focused on the pizza joint’s front door. I was aware a couple had come in and were arm in arm. I leaned forward. “And?”
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