The images sparked something inside my head. Passages from one of Professor Spooker’s many books raced through my mind.
“You’re not supposed to be here.” If I was deciphering the imagery correctly, these spirits were the caretakers of the earth—being cooped up inside a building made no sense. “Why are you here?”
“Your language is English.” Its voice echoed inside my head.
I nodded.
“We were not made to guard metal and glass. We were living in the wild, near the power grid and were periodically worshipped by naked strangers who helped us flourish in this cityscape.”
Professor Spooker claimed that long ago friendly spirits whose only job was to watch over the land existed all over Australia. They helped keep the earth nourished and discouraged animals from ruining sacred sites. Only when anyone dared to threaten the environment they protected, did these spirits become violent. But they were supposed to have gone extinct centuries ago. Hell, they predated the city of Sydney.
Still, this continent had existed long before European settlement and these spirits watched over this great southern land until the human population pushed them out. The professor didn’t know for sure, but had surmised they might even now exist in the wilderness.
Australia had changed over time, but these beings remained.
“You were near the chapel, by the power grid.” The words slid from my mouth before I realized I actually understood what they meant. The Church of the Goddess used an abandoned chapel near Wallace Street for worship, and these creatures accepted their offerings because they were the custodians of the land. Did Hecate do the same?
“Yes, the power we need to travel between patches is there. Not this restrictive energy of specters forcing us to stay.”
“How did you get inside this building?”
The bubbly ghost sighed inside my head and for a moment seemed lost in thought. “We were captured by a dark force and enslaved within these walls, but we don’t belong in this restrictive place.”
“Why were you captured?” This didn’t make any sense.
“We were enslaved to guard this metal construct.”
“Guard it from whom?”
“From trespassers.”
“That’s why you tossed the panels at us?”
“Not at you. We wanted to stop the one with the weapon.”
No wonder they’d attacked Gareth.
“Who are you? You feel familiar, like kin.”
“I’m Sierra Fox, a spook catcher by trade. If you let me, I can release you from this forced bondage.”
“How will you do such a thing?” the spirit asked. “We cannot get our bearings, cannot feel where we belong. There is too much metal and glass. We can hardly remember our true selves.”
“I can collect and release you where you belong.”
“We would like that very much. We need to continue our work, it’s very important.” It paused, those fathomless eyes causing my reflection to mirror back. “The more time that goes by, the harder it becomes to remember what we were meant to do. Are you sure you can help?”
I nodded. This situation might be unlike any I’d encountered before, and I might be face-to-face with spirits of myth, but I was a spook catcher. If I still relied on the use of spook canisters, I might have failed, but not now. Not when all I had to do was lay my hands on them.
“Tell me, why do you feel more than human?”
I laughed. “That’s probably because I am.”
“We will owe you a great debt if you can help us.”
“Don’t worry about owing me. I just want to make things right.” I raised my hands, palms facing the spirit. The tattoo lit up, reflecting pinkish light between me and these trapped creatures.
“You bear the mark.”
“That’s why you stopped your attack, right?”
It nodded. “You have been touched by our Goddess.”
I could’ve sworn the surrounding misty bodies chanted Hecate’s name.
“I’m going to call all of you to me. You’ll be compelled to come, so don’t fight it.” I licked my lips. “You can trust me. I won’t enslave or hurt you.”
“We will do as you command.”
I stretched my arms out until my palms were virtually in front of the spirit’s grayish frame. Come to me.
I’d accidentally stumbled onto this simple technique while on my catching sprint. I’d used several canisters at first, but when a particular nasty spook decided to attack instead of approach, I silently commanded it to come to me and it worked. Now, I could draw spook energy directly into my left hand and use the thread of their energy to connect me to the grid. My right hand helped balance me out.
As soon as I compelled these wispy spirits, every single one of them rushed me like a tornado slamming into my palm. As they attached themselves to me, a pink glow surrounded us. There had to be at least fifteen now connected to my palm, their tails serving as strings while their bodies were balloons floating above me.
I sucked in a sudden breath and expelled the chill until I was back in the office.
“I’ll take you home,” I whispered as soon as I’d exited their zone.
“Sierra,” Gareth called behind me.
I spun around. He stood with a confused expression. His gun was now holstered and he was cradling his arm.
“The bullet got you.” I rushed to him, trying not to look at the torn fabric of his shirt or the gash bleeding beneath.
He shrugged and pointed at the filing cabinet, where a bullet was embedded. “It’s just a graze. Still hurts like a son of a bitch, though.” He sighed. “You know, no matter how many times I see you do that, it freaks me out every time.”
“So you keep telling me.” He mentioned it just about every time he saw me enter a spirit’s zone because all he saw was me frozen in time—no motion or speech. Yeah, I could see why he thought I looked freaky.
“Okay, now that all the excitement is over, why don’t we see what’s hiding behind that closed door?” He stepped towards it but I pushed ahead.
“Why don’t I go first, in case there’s another protection barrier trying to keep you away?”
“So it was trying to keep me out, huh? Interesting,” he said, motioning me ahead.
I took a quick breath and regretted it instantly. The rank of spoiled meat was definitely coming from inside the boardroom. Not wanting to draw this out, I wrapped my fingers around the door handle. When no electricity struck me, I pushed the door open.
The stench personified into death.
I recoiled long enough to cover my nose with my hand. The stink was too powerful to ignore, the closed door having contained just how terrible the scene really was.
“Holy shit,” Gareth said, stepping in beside me. “Don’t touch anything, okay?”
I nodded, feeling the weight of my otherworldly companions shimmer along my hand. I forced myself to wander inside, puffing small breaths into my sleeve so I could focus on the sick scene in front of me. The councilors—Bronwyn, Jacques and Latisha—were sitting around the board table as if they were in one of their secretive meetings, but the trio was dead. The three sat back on their expensive leather chairs, their heads thrown back and pressed against the headrest with matching bullet holes between their eyes.
As I made my way around, I noticed a discarded gun on the floor near the multitude of hard drives and monitors stacked in the corner. “There’s a weapon over there,” I said, dropping my sleeve.
“Okay, don’t touch it.”
“They were killed the same way as Henry.”
“Someone executed these three and left them here to rot.” He stood over Bronwyn and leaned closer. “Looks like they’ve been dead for a while.”
I spotted a single monitor sitting at the end of the table and it flickered. At the same time, go
oseflesh appeared on my arms. Not again.
“I’m going to have to call this in.”
“Okay, but I don’t think it’s a good idea for me to be here.”
“You won’t be.” He stopped in front of me, blocking my view of the monitor. His breath misted between us. “It’s happening again, isn’t it? The temperature in this room just dropped.”
I nodded, stepping around him so I could face the monitor. “It’s coming from there,” I said, pointing a finger.
The flickering stopped, forming a picture—of Lee.
“Sierra, you made it!” She stood so close that only her face appeared on screen.
“What’re you doing inside a computer monitor?” A stupid thing to ask since I already knew the answer. The ghost in the machine is a rare phenomenon whereby a spirit can infiltrate electrical equipment—such as computers, radios and telephones. They can then use these devices as a way of communicating with the living, or as Lee was doing, to project themselves.
No wonder all of the monitors and hard drives had been disconnected and thrown in the boardroom. Whoever was responsible wanted to make sure this didn’t happen. I couldn’t help but think of Mace and Vixen working together. She must have shot the councilors while Mace took care of the catchers. Did he have them strapped into those awful chairs? But how? Surely they’d all been ruined after the explosion.
“It’s pretty nifty, right?” Lee said with a smile. “Took me long enough to sneak my way in, though.” She glanced at the dead councilors.
“What happened to them?” I asked.
She turned her attention back to me, and it felt weird to talk to someone as if they were in some freaky two-way TV show. “It’s too late for the councilors, and for me…but not for the other girls.”
“Where are they?” I hated to even consider not being able to help her when she’d worked so hard to contact me.
“If you spoke to Henry then you know that the Council hasn’t banished any of the malicious spooks we’ve captured for a long time. Their energy is stored deep beneath this building.” She looked over her shoulder. “It’s a secret dungeon that connects to some hellish dimension. Mace is responsible.” Lee grimaced. “You need to get rid of these spooks before it’s too late.”
“I’ll go down right now, I’ll—”
“No,” she cut in. “First you need to get the land spirits back to their rightful place.”
“But—”
“Sierra, please don’t argue with me, just get them out of this building. We need to balance the scales. I tried to move them, but wasn’t strong enough and ended up in this predicament.” Her face wavered. “Looks like I’m out of time. Make sure you take care of the spirits, and then come back as soon as you can. Not just for the girls, but to finish this.”
“And if I don’t come back?” The thought of letting the other catchers perish made my heart sink as much as having to return to this horrible place of death and destruction.
Lee shrugged. “The trapped energy is reaching capacity, so this place is going to blow one way or another. But if you cause the explosion, at least it will be controlled and the casualties won’t be as high. Think about the innocent people who don’t know anything about what’s really going on. We’re in the middle of the CBD.”
I nodded. “Leave it with me, I’ll come back to save you. All of you.”
“Listen, Sierra. When you do, don’t use the elevator or the stairs.”
“Why not?” How the hell was I going to get to them otherwise?
“If you do, you’ll never find us.” Lee’s image jumped and she kept looking over her shoulder. “Go to the secret doorway behind the reception desk—”
“I know where it is.” Mace had dragged me past the water wall the night he tied me to one of the chairs, hoping I would make the ghostly patch collapse into ours. I just hadn’t known the destination could be changed.
A rueful smile curved her lips. “I knew I could count on you.”
“Lee…” She was already gone, leaving a black monitor and taking the temperature drop with her so quickly the stench of rotting corpses rushed up my nostrils. A tugging on my left hand reminded me of the spirits I had with me, and how Lee mentioned they were important to balance things out.
Mace was doing everything he could to tip the scales in his favor, but I was about to change that. I can do this.
A hand on my elbow made me jump.
“Sorry,” Gareth said, dropping his hand. “What happened?”
“We need to go.”
“You have to go,” he said, running a hand through his mussed-up hair. “I’m going to call you a cab and you’re going to go straight home, okay? No one knows you’re here and we’re going to keep it that way.”
“What about you?”
“I can take care of myself.”
“Yeah, but why were you inside the Spook Catcher Council Tower tonight?” I didn’t like the idea of abandoning him. Then again, he was a police officer.
“An anonymous call came in.” He slipped a disposable glove over his left hand and lifted the handset from the middle of the table, holding it near my face. He dialed his own mobile number and answered it with his injured side. “Hello, this is Constable Gareth Crewe.”
“Um…hello,” I said, squeaking up my voice. “You have to help me. They’re keeping me prisoner. Come, quick.”
“Miss, where are you? How did you get my number?”
“Please, just come to the Spook Catcher Council. Now!” He pulled the handset away, slammed it and disconnected his mobile before pocketing it.
“That was pretty convincing,” he said.
“How are you going to explain being shot, and the destruction outside?” This plan had too many holes. “Or the fact you were already here when the call came in?”
“I was in the area.”
“Your phone is going to give your location away—”
“Sierra, I’ll figure it out,” Gareth said with a mischievous smirk. “I think it’s about time some suspicion was pointed towards Mace Clamber.” He pulled his gun out of its holster. “Come on. Let’s take a quick look around before you have to go.”
I nodded. “Let’s go to the accommodation floor.”
“Lead the way.”
I forced my gaze away from the dead bodies as I stepped into the destroyed office area. The damage made it look like a giant had taken to playing with the furniture and fittings.
The elevator wasn’t supposed to work, since I didn’t live at the Council and my access to the accommodation levels had been revoked years ago. But when I gave it a try, the buttons lit up all the way to the top in response to my thumbprint. There were six floors to cover so we had to be quick. After checking every room, we didn’t find a single person or any signs of a struggle.
“Okay, that’s all the time we can spare.” Gareth pulled out his phone in the elevator. “I need to call this in.”
When we reached the ground floor, I hesitated. I could already feel the thumping in the back of my head. My insides quivered so much I thought they might be liquefying.
Gareth’s face darkened with concern. He hit the button to keep the doors open and said, “You wait here while I make the calls.”
I nodded and backed up until my spine was pressed against the far wall of the elevator. I wasn’t looking forward to stepping into the foyer, but how else was I going to leave this blasted building? The severity of the situation made me ill, but when I felt the weight pressing down on me, a tug on my palm reminded me of the earthbound spirits and I felt hopeful.
But being hopeful wasn’t enough to erase the reality. If I felt this sick while in the vicinity, how were the other catchers affected if they were right in the thick of things? A new wave of loss swept over me. Lee was already too far-gone, there was no denying it—even she knew it. But in spite of it
all, she’d reached out.
“Okay,” Gareth said, returning to the elevator. “The cab will be waiting for you at the pub across the road.”
“Sure, thanks Gareth.” I gave his hand a reassuring squeeze. “I mean it, thank you for doing this.” I frowned. “Sorry you got hurt.”
“It’s just a scratch.” He repeated his explanation of the injury. “Besides, you know I’m now a part of this war you and your friends are fighting.”
“We’re glad to have you on our side.” I looked him in the eye. “I’m glad that you’re on our side.”
A small smile teased the edges of his lips.
I dropped his hand and sucked in a deep breath, staring out into what awaited me.
“Are you ready to head out?”
“Yeah,” I whispered. “Let’s get this over and done with.”
As soon as I stepped outside the safety of the elevator walls, a wave of energy blasted my body with so much force I stumbled forward.
“Are you sure you can make it to the door?”
I nodded, but recoiled because the nausea made my stomach feel like it was about to squeeze out of my mouth. Gross.
“Okay, I don’t want you to think this is some sexist action I’ve been waiting to try on you, but I think it’s the only way to get you outside.”
“What?” I had no idea what he meant.
Gareth wrapped his arms around my midsection and hoisted me over his shoulder. I didn’t want to play the role of damsel in distress, but he was doing me a favor. My head pounded so hard it felt close to splitting. Blood dribbled from my nose, ears and my eyes stung. It only took seconds for him to rush across the immaculate foyer, but it was enough for me to feel like I was falling apart.
Gareth raced past the automatic doors and the cool evening air felt good on my heated face and limbs. I was grateful when he put me down under the shelter of the overpass and I somehow managed to cast a cloaking spell over us.
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