Dags was the brightest of those souls—his own essence being mostly of Ethereal matter. He would taste the most powerful, but he was also guarded by the two familiars. And I could see in the center of his soul—a book with pages of pressed gold. Beside him was Joe—
And his essence gleamed a soft blue. I knew that essence—I’d seen it before with Rhonda. And I’d tasted it. There was something just a little bit different about him. Maybe it was because he’d died once, and touched the Ethereal plane with his own living soul?
Maybe.
It was wrong for souls to return to the physical plane once they departed, right? Wasn’t that the rule? Or was that the exception? My mind was still a bit hazy on things—on what I knew and what I’d been told.
He wasn’t supposed to be here.
And I was there—in front of Joe—with only a single thought.
Joe yelled out and put his hands out—but my own arms passed through him. And I noticed—
Wow . . . my fingers looked normal at first—but then grew into long, spindly spears that pierced his physical shell in his chest and touched his soul encased beneath. But I caught his gaze in mine and saw—
A skull.
The death mask.
I pulled back even as a larger part of me screamed out in protest, wanting to touch his soul, to devour his essence. The death mask—on Joe? But—how? Seeing the mask always spoke of death for that individual. No! Joe couldn’t die! I wouldn’t let that happen!
And then Dags was between us. In his hands was a gleaming sword, pulsing with the blue-white light of the Witch Fire.
Witch Fire . . . how did I know that?
“Get back—Zoë! Please!” Dags was saying, and I thought I saw tears in his eyes. “Don’t make me use the sword—you won’t survive it.”
Won’t survive the sword? Why would he think that? I’m not some damned creature of darkness.
“Dags—” Joe said in a slow tone, his hands still up but his expression more one of curiosity. He looked fine now—no mask. And he didn’t seem to be perturbed that I’d just shoved my fingers into his torso. Or had he not even seen me do that? “She’s not much different. Look closely at her—”
And then Dags was lowering his hands, the sword gone—and Alice and Maureen were there—flanking him. To my surprise, as well as Joe’s and Dags’s, the two women bowed from their waists at me. Everything around us stopped—the EMTs, the police, even the air, froze in place.
Except for me, Joe, Dags, and the familiars.
“Zoë,” Dags said, “you look just like you normally do. Nothing really wigged out or fancy. Are you”—he blinked—“a ghost?”
“No, she’s not a ghost, but an Irin,” Alice said from her bowed position.
“Now wait a minute—” I said. “What’s going on?”
But Alice was already straightening up. “I see now what your father had in mind—the only way to defeat the Horror, to become the Wraith again, is to fulfill your destiny.”
Joe’s eyebrows knitted together, and he looked at Dags. “You get that?”
Dags shook his head and glanced at each of the familiars. Maureen straightened up as well. “Uh—no. Not so much.”
Alice spoke, “Zoë is—by birth—an Irin. A Watcher. A being that watches the borders between the planes. There is an Irin for every border—” She paused. “Or there used to be. But since the Bulwark War—they were all destroyed—and the ability to father more was lost.”
I blinked at her. Joe’s eyebrows rose. And Dags—he looked at me, then looked at Alice. “Bulwark?”
Joe said, “Doesn’t that like mean fortress, or protection?”
We looked at Joe with stunned expressions. Even Maureen. He shrugged. “What? I read.”
Alice nodded. “Partially. The Irin maintained a battlement that protected the planes from one another—to prevent meddling from entities such as the Phantasm, Daimon, fetches, and even the Seraphim and Nephillium. Your father was part of that defense, choosing to work with Domas to strengthen the Irin’s powers. Domas was afraid of everything, and the thought that such creatures, things he couldn’t see, would have free rein over his world, pushed him to make the Dioscuri Experiments.”
“Dioscuri,” Joe said. “Wait a minute—isn’t that a Greek reference?”
Dags ran a hand through his dark, wild hair. “Yeah—the Dioscuri were brothers. Twins right?”
Alice nodded.
“I don’t remember the particulars, but they share immortality? As in they enter into Olympus and Hades?”
Joe grunted. “So—they could go anywhere?”
“Yes.” Alice nodded. “Domas wanted to not only bring back the Irin—but to fortify them. So he carefully chose his candidates—unfortunately he was betrayed in the end. Even when he had nearly achieved what he set out to do.”
Listening to Alice brought back the conversation I’d had with Rodriguez in the botanica. “You mean people like Bertram and Charolette?”
“Wackos,” Joe said.
“Yes,” Maureen said. “Too bad they couldn’t get psych reports back then. But they weren’t the real betrayers.”
And then I knew. “Rodriguez was.”
Alice nodded. “He was the one who set the fire that destroyed the laboratory that day. He thought he’d killed the Dioscuri trainees. And he believed he’d also taken all the Dioscuri materials.”
“But March Knowles had them, didn’t he?” Joe said. “Rhonda’s uncle?”
“Yes. He was Domas’s partner, and he kept the originals with him. Rodriguez was more than a little pissed that he didn’t get everything—and so he continued to try and create an Irin himself.”
“But—” I looked at Alice and Maureen, then back to Alice. “But what happened?”
“In its simplest form? Rodriguez created a monster,” Alice said. “He had no help—didn’t want any. Because he was so afraid he wouldn’t get the power himself. He believed if he had the power of an Irin—if he could jump from plane to plane—he could control the universe.”
I smirked. “You mean he believed he could control God?”
Alice nodded.
I rolled my eyes. Yeah . . . I believed Rodriguez’s ego could think that.
Stupid git.
“What did he do?” Dags asked. “What do you mean he created a monster?”
I glanced around. Everyone was still frozen in place—and I was worried how long things could stay like this.
“Don’t fret, Zoë,” Alice said. “They’re not frozen. We are. And we can hold this for a while—but what we say is important for the next steps.”
“Okay . . . if you say so.”
“Why is it she can talk like this but not as Wraith?” Joe asked.
“Because her voice is linked to the Archer,” Alice said with a bit of scorn in her voice. “It was he that derailed what could have been the most powerful of Irin. Without his link to the Abysmal, she can no longer be Wraith. But neither is she Irin again. Yet.”
Joe rubbed at his face. “Okay . . . I’m getting thoroughly confused on this. But”—he nodded to her—“please, keep going. Rhonda’s life is in danger wherever it is Mr. Possessed took her.”
Rhonda! I looked at Dags. “Where is Rhonda? What did I miss? Who took her?”
“Daniel took her—” he said. “Or whatever is possessing Daniel did.”
“When you say took—you mean like through the planes?”
Dags raised his eyebrows. “They vanished right in front of us. Maureen is sure he took them into the Abysmal.”
I blinked. “Your trip through the Abysmal—it was agony—and it only took a few seconds.” Oh God. I could only imagine what sort of pain Rhonda might be feeling if the thing in Daniel took her through the Abysmal in physical form.
“Don’t worry,” Alice said. “Rhonda Orly is protected. But only for a while. Please listen carefully.”
I nodded, but there was a part of me drawn to getting her back. And how do they know Rhonda
is protected? Because she’s a witch?
Joe rubbed his finger over his lip. “So what exactly can an Irin do—but Zoë’s still not able to do?”
Alice said, “In reality—we’re not sure why Rodriguez would want to be an Irin. They’re not terribly powerful. The Irin only have the ability to banish creatures back to their places of origin—keeping things where they should be. Banishing ghosts and spirits, wandering aimlessly. A Wraith has the ability to release that spirit’s fetter—when it can’t move on—but at the same time—the Wraith has the ability to devour that spirit and gain more power. And like an Irin, a Wraith can cross borders and planes easily.”
I’d experienced that tug of the human soul with Rhonda. And when I overshadowed someone—I tended to slowly suck away their power.
“The monster?” Dags prompted.
Alice nodded. “Rodriguez tried to make himself into an Irin—but because he’d already gone through the Dioscuri training, he was tainted with the Abysmal—which is the easiest of the major planes to touch. What he did was split his soul into two parts. He had the basics, but he wasn’t strong enough.”
“Basics?” Joe said. “You mean there’s like a recipe to make an Irin?” He grinned.
No one else did.
“Sorry,” he muttered. “Just a bit jumpy.”
“What he did was create what you’ve heard called a Horror.”
I pursed my lips. “His split soul became a Horror?”
“His Abysmal half did. And this Horror possessed him, becoming the dominant side of him until it became too powerful and started killing people. It killed anyone that survived the experiments, looking for the documents—”
“Documents?” Joe said.
Alice sighed. “The list Domas kept about suspected Irinborn. The Society had been tracking them for years—not as the Society of Ishmael, but under many other names. Your father was called to battle one last time.”
“The Bull thing,” Dags said.
“Yes. He and the others were successful—they destroyed the Horror. They destroyed a part of Rodriguez, his Abysmal half. But there wasn’t enough of a sane man left. There were so many casualties.” She looked at me. “And Adiran was no longer able to come home to you.”
I put my hands to my face.
Finally. A reason for why he never came home.
Dags was beside me—his hand out to me. But Maureen reacted first and grabbed his wrist. “Do not touch her.”
He turned a very angry face on her. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him angry. “Why not? I’m not afraid of an Irin. That’s Ethereal light—”
“Darren,” Alice said. “I will explain it later. We’re running out of time.”
“Yeah,” I said. “I need to get to the Abysmal and get Mom and Rhonda back.”
But the expression Alice gave me made me step back a minute. “No, Zoë—it’s not them that’s running out of time. It’s you.”
I held up my hands, palms facing them. I also noticed they weren’t all talony anymore. Just me in black and bunny slippers. Oh, I missed you guys! “Whoa—back up. I’m running out of time?”
She pointed past me to the frozen scene in the botanica. “Your life is at the crossroads. If your body dies now, then you become nothing more than—” She hesitated, and I could see she was having trouble putting whatever it was into words.
“Sea foam?” Joe said.
I stuck my tongue out at him. “I’m not the Little Mermaid.”
Alice and Maureen looked at one another. Dags’s eyes widened as if he could hear their unspoken thoughts. He took a step back. “No . . . you can’t be serious. Why didn’t you tell me that before?”
I looked from Maureen to Dags to Alice. “Tell him what?”
It was Alice who stepped toward me and took my hands in hers. “We told you the story of the former Horror and Rodriguez to explain how they’re created. This new Horror is also born of a split soul.”
I stared at her face, always in awe of the soft glow that illuminated her Ethereal skin. Her eyes were sad. “The soul that split this time is yours.”
Uh . . . say that again?
Alice moved to the other side of me. “We still don’t know how it happened—but we suspected it was your soul when we saw you again.”
“But”—I moved back from them—“I didn’t do any wacky experiments on myself. I never wanted any kind of crazy power—”
“We know that,” Alice said. “We also know your abilities grew with the use of the Eidolons last month because of Bertram and Charolette. But then something happened and your soul was rent into two pieces.”
I put my hands to my chest. “I’m like Rodriguez now?”
“Oh heavens no,” Alice said. “Not even close.”
Dags stepped forward. “But are you saying that whatever is possessing Daniel is like . . . Zoë’s evil twin? That that is what’s been killing those people? What killed Boo Baskins.”
Okay . . . I was gonna be sick. I put a hand to my mouth.
Maureen nodded. “Yes. Zoë doesn’t have any control of it. And somehow it’s inside Daniel Frasier. We don’t know when or how—might have happened because of whatever it is that’s arrested your Wraith development. We just know that it has to be stopped.”
Alice said, “Zoë—the Horror inside of Daniel is you. And if you don’t banish it and take it back into your soul—you’ll suffer the same fate as Rodriguez.”
“Yeah,” Joe said, as I had a nice little quiet fit in my head. “So what does that mean? Rodriguez is still alive and causing mischief? Or is that really his evil twin, Skippy?”
“He lost half of himself—half of his soul. Without the other half, he wasn’t able to transmigrate.”
I shrugged. “Trans-who?”
“She means move to the next plane of existence,” Joe said.
“Thank you, Rhonda-Joe,” I quipped. “I guess sharing a bed sort of pushed a bit of her know-it-all powers up in you.”
“Stop it,” Dags said. “So Rodriguez was trying to get ahold of Zoë in order regrow his other half?”
Alice nodded. “He was wanting her and the Grimoire that belonged to the Cruorem. Rhonda knew this—was told this by her uncle once he found out. That was when she joined her uncle in working against Rodriguez. She’s been in your corner a long time, Zoë.”
Meh.
I was still mad at her. “But what would having me do? How would I help him get his soul back?”
Alice shook her head. “I don’t know. In the beginning, as we were studying you—we thought it was Rodriguez who separated you from TC in order to initiate the Horror’s creation. But then we realized too late it was something else. Something we hadn’t expected.”
“What?”
“An Eidolon,” Dags said. “The blue Eidolon. It’s here, isn’t it? That’s what kicked off TC and Zoë’s connection—made her lose her powers. The one her father made.”
Alice nodded. “Maybe. We’re not sure. But we know the Phantasm was able to harness her Abysmal half and send it after Archer—to destroy Archer is to destroy a part of Zoë.”
“Where is the ole fiend?” Joe said. “Anybody seen him?”
I pursed my lips. Not in a while.
“What the fuck is that?” Cooper said to my right, no longer frozen.
Whups.
I turned and looked at him—he was with Mastiff by the front door. Mastiff was seated in one of the chairs at the table, his arm bandaged. Cooper had been kneeling, talking to him, and was now standing and staring wide-eyed at—
Me.
Joe had regained his composure and was looking from me to Cooper. “Captain—can you see Zoë?”
Cooper’s expression looked like someone watching a horror film. I’d never seen that look directed at me before. And then he moved to the entrance between the two shops and looked at the body lying there. And then he looked at me.
Uh-oh. This could get sticky.
“See her? What the blue blazes is she do
ing there?” He pointed at me where I stood, then pointed at the floor in front of the fireplace. “And there?”
“This isn’t good,” Dags said.
“No shit,” I said, and immediately reached out with my right hand. It once again became a blue-white fist of talons that pierced his skull. His mind unfolded in front of me like one of those new technogadget computer screens—with images of the past few days playing out in AVI windows. I saw the one of him seeing me in two places and plucked it out. Within seconds he was on the ground and there was an even bigger ruckus.
“What’d you do that for?” Joe said in a hiss as he stepped back to let the EMTs shift half of their number from my body to Cooper’s, though he was moving and moaning pretty good.
“He’ll be all right. I just took that single memory from him. He’s fainted. Geez.” I looked at Joe. He was turning white himself, then I realized, the last time he’d seen me stick my “hands” in anyone was with Rhonda, and I’d stopped her heart. And then restarted it.
Oops.
But I had to wonder—how did I know how to do that? Was it part of what I was supposed to be? If I believed Alice.
I looked at Alice, Maureen, and Dags. “I think we need to go somewhere else.”
And then I was in Mom’s bedroom. Just poof. Bewitched. I could hear everyone downstairs. I already knew what I had to do. I turned to the door to head to my room, where the remains of the jewelry box were—
“You looking for this?”
I spun then, a blur of motion as I faced the voice coming from the open closet.
I’d always been afraid of closets as a child—slept with the light on in case the monsters I saw would come to get me. Those monsters had always been hairy like big spiders, with drooly teeth and red-glowing eyes.
But nothing was as scary as the monster I saw looking out at me from the closet. It was dressed in an expensive Italian suit, leather shoes, a red rose in its lapel, and a mustache upon its oily lips.
Francisco Rodriguez.
And he was holding up the remains of my mother’s jewelry box.
26
THE thundering on the stairs announced the rest of the Scooby Gang was on the approach, having figured out where I’d popped to.
Phantasm Page 22
