“Why is that a bad thing?”
“You’ll nullify this entire game.”
“Game?” Nona said with a lift of her chest. “Jason, this is no game. And no matter how much you trust Lex, I don’t.”
Nodding, Jason said, “Which is why I arranged the rules to include Detective Halloran’s return regardless.”
“I’m sorry, Jason,” I said, folding my arms in front of me. “But I don’t trust them or her as much as you do. I’d prefer to have him back now. With none of this fighting-to-the-death bullshit.”
Mom stood. “I agree. This is ridiculous. Mephistopheles told me himself he never wanted any kind of leadership role. For you to play with Joe’s life as well as Dags’s—”
“I’m not playing here,” Jason said, and motioned for her to sit. “And Mr. McConnell is under no compulsion to go along with this. He can bow out anytime he wishes.” He held up a finger. “But—we have been played. Therefore, it is time to play the player.”
Me, Mom, Dags, and Rhonda glanced at each other and sat back down.
Jason pointed to the chessboard. “This contest, this challenge, is a way for me to root out the one playing the strings. To expose them.” When we all gave him MEGO looks, he sighed. “Since the beginning of this, someone or thing has been manipulating our movements. It somehow got hold of an ancient spell known only to First Borns and the Phantasm. Anything else that might have had knowledge of this has long since vanished from the physical or Abysmal plane.”
I nodded. So did Mom. Dags’s hand found my knee. I didn’t put my hand with his, but I didn’t move his either.
“It then uses this spell—or most of it—to kill two humans in a very specific and ritualistic way that only First Borns would recognize.” He moved two pawns onto the board, one square. “Then it kills a ghoul. Not just any ghoul but the longest-lived ghoul. Lex’s companion. One that would garner instant attention.” He moved a rook from its place and put it in direct line of the king. “Now, we have two Revenants gone, one of them was the first of us, first Revenant.” He moved a knight from either side and set them all in a row across the board. “One of our own turns on us—capturing a helpless human, demanding the Grimoire in exchange for his release.” Jason moved another pawn out in front between the front line and the enemy.
Dags jumped in. “You think all this has been engineered so that we’d eventually put me”—he put his hand on his chest—“the Grimoire—in the open.”
“I do.” Jason chewed on his lower lip. “Once that happens, and if that spell is indeed inside, it would make it easier to take. So, if we add a bit of a kink into their plans—say put in a Right of Challenge—it will delay their ultimate goal.”
Yeah. But . . . “Jason—this is something all the Revenants who are around will attend, right? So—that’s putting all of them in the same place.”
He gave me a very oily, uncomfortable smile. “Yes. It is.”
I shivered. Obviously he knew something I didn’t. “But wouldn’t that be bad? I mean—it makes them vulnerable.”
“Actually,” Rhonda spoke up, “it gives them an advantage.”
“Say that again?”
“Revenants have a link to one another—kinda like a Borgmind thing,” Rhonda said as she looked at me. “Pretty much like when Mephistopheles wants to talk to one of us.”
Oh, I thought he could turn it off and on, and I was right!
Dags sat forward. “Oh . . . I see. If something happens to one while you’re in the same vicinity, all of you will know it.”
Jason nodded. “Yes.”
“So the whole battle for dominance thing is really a ruse,” I said.
“No.”
Eh?
“The battle is real. Lex—in my opinion—has disobeyed one of the first tenets we put forth when we all agreed to bond with humans. And that is never to barter with a human’s life. Now, I’ve lost touch with the others over the centuries—Mephistopheles has, that is. And there may have been changes. I mean—vampire killings still happen in the world, and I sometimes have to wonder if there aren’t those out there succumbing to the drive to feed and doing just that. It’s just that even though the world is more connected than ever—people aren’t. No one’s going to run outside to see who’s screaming. They’re either going to think it’s on the television, or they’ll close their blinds and lock their doors.”
I hated to admit he was right, but he was. Other than Jemmy, neither Mom nor I really knew any of our neighbors.
“It’s true that Mephistopheles has never wanted any sort of leadership role. He’s always been more of a lover of the arts, enjoyer of life. And even after centuries of enjoying these things, he never tires of them. Leadership means politics and intrigue. And we got a shitload of intrigue here.”
I smiled. I was sure the First Born had a lot to do with what Jason had just said, but that the shitload comment was all him.
“So what exactly do you do for one of these battles?” Rhonda said. “Is it like a duel at sunup? Or do the First Borns fight?”
“Choice of weapon,” Jason said as he sat back. “Lex will choose since I have challenged her. My guess is she’ll want hand-to-hand combat.”
“You mean like a bar fight?” I said. Dags’s hand hadn’t moved, and I finally put mine on top of his. He didn’t shift his gaze from Jason, but I could see the smile in his eyes as I glanced at him.
“Pretty much. What I’m hoping she doesn’t choose is swords. I’m a bit rusty on those.”
Rhonda grinned. “Swords?”
“Lex was always a good swordsperson.” He grinned. “She killed me once—over a misunderstanding.”
“She killed you?”
“Ummhmmm. I was a knight, and she was the king. And we were both in love with the same woman.” He smiled. “I was enjoying being French at the time. My host’s name was Lancelot du Lac.”
24
THE fun thing about Jason was that I never knew whether to believe him or not. I mean . . . I knew the First Born had lived for a long time. Maybe even thousands of years. But to think he was actually Lancelot at one time?
Phhhfffttt. Not.
Though . . . hrm.
It was decided after that to keep Dags at the estate underground. With the security in place, it was impossible for a Revenant to get in—not counting Jason, but we did test out the security using him as a guinea pig. His body recovered faster than I thought it would.
Dags and I spent a little time getting to know each other again. I was still reeling from my own verbal admittance to him about how I felt. I’d actually told him I loved him. Hell . . . I was full-on crazy for a detective not a month ago. And now that detective is crazy.
“You think if Daniel is being used now, that he’ll remember this too?” I said, as we lounged back in a hammock in a protected grove of oaks. The sun was starting its evening descent, and the fireflies were already out, visible against the azalea bushes. A breeze helped with the June heat now and then. “I mean—he’s never going to get better if this keeps happening.”
Dags was quiet for a bit. “I don’t know, Zoë. I can’t even imagine what’s in his head. To be possessed like that—and have to watch as your body does and says things that you can’t even comprehend. I’m not sure how sane I’d be afterward if something like that happened to me.”
I sort of found this an odd statement—basically because of the girls. He carried inside of him two spirits, bound to him in service as Familiars to his being a Guardian. And I wondered if there had ever been a time since this had happened to him when either of them had ever taken control of him.
Or if they could.
“What do you think about Jason’s plan?” he asked me.
I shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t understand the whole Revenant thing. I barely understand my own connection to it.”
“Your connection is the Archer.” He paused. “I wonder if he has a name. A First Born name like the others.”
“A
rcher isn’t it?”
It was Dags’s turn to shrug. “I thought the Archer was a title given to him. Meaning rogue. He’s a turncoat in a way. Having been the Phantasm’s right hand.”
“I think . . .” I began, trying to remember things TC had told me. “If I’m not mistaken, TC was actually coerced. Like, put under a spell. His voice was taken from him for centuries, I know that. And he was to do the Phantasm’s bidding. And then he touched me—”
“And everything changed,” Dags finished. “Have you ever asked him?”
Wow.
I had never thought about that. Just asking him. “Huh. No. But I might. If I see him again.”
“Oh, you’ll see him. He has no choice.”
I moved in the hammock to get a better look. “Why do you say that like you know something?”
“Because that’s how Symbiont and host work. The Archer may or may not want to admit that he’s linked to you in that way, but he is. Notice how he’s always around? And he’s come to your aid more times than you realize. Always at the endgame.”
I frowned at him. “Someone’s been paying attention.”
“Uh-huh. Rhonda too. All of us. And now that we’re learning more about the First Borns, it’s all starting to make sense. Though”—he ran a hand through his hair—“my situation isn’t making sense.”
Okay, moving on a hammock is just too hard. I’m gonna have to talk to him and not tip us over. “Dags—have you been sleeping well?”
I felt his body stiffen. “Why do you ask?”
“Oh, I was just curious. ’Cause I had Alice come to me in a dream and tell me you weren’t dreaming. Is this true?”
There was a long pause. “You dreamed about Alice?”
“Uh-huh.” Okay, he sounded funny, and I like face contact. I shifted in the hammock until I was sort of propped up looking down at him. Whoa . . . we are so gonna fall. “She came to me in a dream to tell me you weren’t dreaming. That usually she can see your dreams.”
He was looking at me with those metal gray eyes. “I—I can’t remember my dreams, if that’s what you’re asking. But, Zoë, I’ve barely seen Alice or Maureen lately. I know they were there last night—and their power had been blocked by that book. But even now”—he held up a hand and looked at his palm—“I know they’re there. I can feel them. But”—he looked at me—“I can’t feel them.”
“What does that mean?”
“I have a sense of knowing what I am. I know what I can do if I tried. And I know the Grimoire is there, like an echo of whispers inside of me. And if I concentrate, I can feel it. And up until a few days ago, I could feel the girls. I could concentrate and feel their personalities. Alice with her strong Julia Sugarbaker will, and Maureen with her darker, emo self. They come when I’m in danger—like earlier today.”
“You were in danger earlier?”
“The Grimoire has a protection around it. Rhonda insists she didn’t set it, but it’s there. And when I try to access the book, it opens for me. But I can’t always use the spell, and I know it’s because I’m not there yet. I don’t have enough . . . oh, I don’t know . . . experience points yet. But when someone from the outside tries to tamper with it”—he sighed—“well, it starts to react. When Jason’s First Born tried to see it—it went all haywire, and I started blacking out. The girls showed up, and at first I thought they were going to attack Jason. But they fed me energy, and though I tried to look into the book—we found blank pages.”
“Rhonda mentioned that. Blank pages.” I thought about the small book again.
“Have you spoken to the Archer about giving back the small book?”
Oh wow. Was he psychic too? “Dags . . .” Can I tell him?
Or get sick again?
Well, I needed to tell someone.
I purposefully thought about telling him about the book and what had happened to my arm.
Nothing happened. No nausea. No rolling stomach. Huh. So I licked my lips and kept going. “Dags—about that book—”
I charged on and told everything that’d happened. From the odd scroll that oozed into my mark, to TC returning the book and Mom seeing him. And then the passage I’d committed to that nasty memory of mine, and how I could read it.
Dags’s eyes widened, and he tried to sit up.
Naturally, we fell out of the hammock, with me on top of him, both of us facedown. I moved away as he sat up, and we started laughing.
Then, “Why haven’t you told anyone?”
“That whole sick thing,” I answered. “Seriously, when I started to tell Mom, I wanted to throw up. But when I tell you—”
“Maybe it’s because the translation came out of the Grimoire.”
Translation . . . of course! “Dags, that makes sense. Might even explain why the book tried to fuse with you. To get to that spell in the Grimoire.”
“Might.” He rubbed his chin. “You need to get back to Nona’s and read that book. If you found a passage that actually mentions Aether—that book might be the First Born grimoire that Jason’s been talking about.”
“You mean Inanna’s book?” I shrugged. “He thinks the Bonville Grimoire is it.”
“What if the Grimoire in me had pages in it from that book?” Dags grinned. “See, when me and Nona and Rhonda looked at it before, we found a hopeless mishmash of things. From Sumerian to Italian, even a bit of Sanskrit. As if it was an amalgam of things—not written by one person but by many. What if that book—the one I found—is the key to this? And what if it holds the spell?”
I sighed. “If only those copies hadn’t’ve been stolen.”
I had to wonder how long those copies had been in the basement—and with all the activity in that shop in the past seven months. “What if—what if those pages were stolen a while back? When was the last time anyone looked at them?”
“Oh.” He looked genuinely worried. “Never thought about that. It is possible.”
“What if someone already took them . . . and that’s where they’re getting this half spell? You already said the pages of the Grimoire were an amalgam—”
“Which would make sense as to why they’re only getting pieces. All those different languages?”
“Uh-huh.” I stood up, then helped him to rise. “I’m gonna go back and get that book. You stay put, got it? No heroics?”
Dags put a hand to his chest. “Me? Heroic? Not a chance.” He reached out to me, taking my arm and pulling me close. In an odd way, we fit together. As long as I was barefoot.
The kiss . . .
I couldn’t describe it. Not if I wanted to. It melted any fears I had, or reservations about relationships. It was genuine, and soft. I wrapped my arms over his shoulders, and his arms were around my waist. There was nothing else in the world but the two of us. Not even the girls were there.
Someone cleared their throat.
We parted lips and looked to my right.
Rhonda was there. With Jason.
And for some reason, I felt bad. Maybe it was the look on her face. Maybe it was because I knew how she felt about him. But damnit. She’d been dating Joe. And she knew how Dags felt. He’d made it clear.
Hadn’t he?
“Sorry to interrupt,” Rhonda said, and her voice was a bit stiff. “But Jason’s leaving to meet the others.”
Dags and I parted but held hands. “Now? The battle is now?”
“An hour after sundown.” Jason smiled. “I told you it would be better to keep the details as much a secret as possible. I have the time and place. And I wanted to know if Rhonda would be my right.”
Rhonda’s complexion lightened. “Don’t you have one already chosen by now?”
I frowned. “What’s a right?”
“No. I hadn’t worried about it till now. And you seem the perfect candidate. You’ve known me a long time. I was going to ask you before this, but I’ve never been an Old Scorch rule follower.”
I looked from Jason to Rhonda. “Hello. Still here.”
Rhonda sighed. “He wants me to go with him to be his surrogate. In case something goes wrong.” She looked at me. “You’re coming too. Nona’s staying here with Dags.”
Hey, no fair. Crap. No time to go snag that book either. But still. I looked at Dags and pointed at him. “No heroics.”
His dazzling smile was priceless. “That goes for you too.”
We kissed.
And again, my toes curled.
WE rode with Jason in one of the Society’s unmarked vans. When I stepped in, I was shocked to see a combo ambulance and Scooby Gang setup. Whistling, I moved to a side seat next to a gurney in the back. “Wow . . . they think of everything.”
“The Society’s pretty thorough, and Gunter’s good with the details.”
I pursed my lips. “Yeah, about him—”
Rhonda slipped into the passenger’s seat and looked up at me through her eyebrows right in the middle of buckling her seat belt. “Don’t ask.”
Ooh.
After getting under way, I felt a slight tingling at the back of my neck.
“Hello, Archer,” Jason said.
“Get out of my van!” Rhonda said as she turned and saw him.
The Symbiont was there, kneeling between me and them. His shades in place. Looking for all the world like a Matrix extra. “So, Mephisto—you really going through with it?”
I looked at Jason and could see his First Born come to the forefront. “Of course, Azr—”
“Ah!” TC put up a gloved finger.
I realized at that moment the Archer had a name—“Wait—what were you going to call him?”
“His real name,” Rhonda said.
TC shook his head. “Nothing important. Just an old name I no longer go by.”
And you don’t need to know.
Yes, I do.
I could hear him laugh in my head.
Don’t tell Jason or Mephistopheles or Rhonda about the book.
He frowned behind his glasses and continued carrying on a conversation with Mephistopheles. “Old Scorch?”
Why not? TC said in my head.
Jason nodded. “Same rules apply. Though I put in the stipulation that the scapegoat not be sacrificed and returned to me or my right regardless.”
Revenant Page 20
