Rodriguez took a step from the closet and smiled at me. Geez, I hated that smile.
“How did you get in here?” I heard myself saying in a voice full of calm that I was not feeling right now.
“I had a key,” he said. “Nona was always a trusting idiot. Never got her locks changed.”
Asswipe.
It was as he was standing there that I noticed something else about him. Something he hadn’t had before. As a Wraith, even when not OOB, I could sometimes see strong auras. The energy surrounding someone—kinda like their soul I guessed. Like I’d always seen Mom’s and Rhonda’s. And Jemmy’s sometimes.
I couldn’t ever remember seeing Rodriguez’s aura—which made sense considering Alice’s tale that he’d lost part of his soul.
What I could make out if I tried really hard was black.
And it looked like—shadows.
I sensed anger and rage from him—but I also got the impression they weren’t his emotions.
Dags and Joe arrived at the top of the stairs. Dags was the first one in and the first one Rodriguez took a shot at. Not with a gun—but with something else. A bolt of lightning?
What was this? Dungeons & Dragons?
Luckily, Dags’s hands were loaded (hands were loaded . . . LOL!) and he held them up, deflecting whatever was aimed at him. Only whatever it was sort of physically blasted at the doorframe—even I felt the blast. The impact against Dags caused a weird blue light to bubble around him for an instant, and he staggered back.
“Dags?” I said.
“I’m fine. I think.” He swallowed and moved back. “I think Alice is hurt though. He threw something pretty hard at us.”
“So where did you pick up that little power?” Joe said as he stepped through the door. He looked so nonchalant in his jeans, shirt, and shoulder holster, his gun out and held up in his right hand. “’Cause from what I heard, you didn’t have any anymore. You sort of screwed the pooch a while back, didn’t you?”
“I still have my natural talents.”
Joe laughed. “You have talents?”
“You’re the one who destroyed Mom’s jewelry box.” I pointed at him. “But how did you get in here?”
Dags put his hand on the cracked doorframe to my left. “Because he’s used what spells he stole from Bonville and created a doorway in the closet. I didn’t notice it before—but what’s worse is he’s made the doorways between his home and yours through the Abysmal.”
Idiot! I shook my head at him. “Don’t you realize what that kind of exposure does to you?”
But Rodriguez only shrugged. “It doesn’t seem to have affected Mr. McConnell.”
“Give me back the box.” I held out my hand. “And I won’t hurt you.”
“You won’t hurt me?” He started to laugh. “Zoë, you stupid girl. You have no idea what’s in this box, do you?”
“A key.”
His expression fell. “Okay—so you know what’s in the box. But you don’t know what it unlocks.”
“The Eidolon.”
Ha. I was two-for. Neener nee. I took a step closer, but he held the box up in both hands. I could now see the key that I couldn’t before. It was small, and just tucked inside the astral plane. It was also giving off a really bad vibe. Like it was festering. A thorn in the skin too long? Something physical that shouldn’t be in the astral?
“Give me the box, Rodriguez.”
“How’d Tyrone die, Rodriguez? You sacrifice him or something? Is that how you got this power? ’Cause I know on good authority you tend to dabble in black magic,” Joe said.
I sighed. Let it go, dumb-ass. I have things to do—like save Mom and Rhonda? You know, your girlfriend?
Joe made a face at me. Whoops—I guess he could hear me again. And if that was true—then was I on my way to losing my voice too?
“Ask Zoë.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. There was something just not right about him. Something—almost familiar.
“Oh shit,” Maureen burst out with. “It’s the Archer!”
What?
We all looked at him—and I tried hard to sense TC’s cocky attitude. So this is where he went after Cooper? To my enemy— Rodriguez? So I couldn’t really stop myself when I blurted out, “This is where you go? To him?” And then I thought of something Dags said once. “Oh my God . . . it’s a contract. That’s why I couldn’t tell! He’s not overshadowing you.”
Rodriguez sneered. “Who knew he was in the cop? The captain himself showed up at my house just after we finished with Tyrone—he was weak, and in need of sustenance.” He held up his right hand and it crackled with electricity. “And now I have youth and power.”
Hrm. I frowned. Evidently Mr. F here didn’t read up on the exact uses of a Symbiont. I knew TC. He didn’t. If anyone was gett’n used, it wasn’t Trench Coat.
Dude was in for a rude awakening. Archer couldn’t connect with me anymore—couldn’t gain power. But with him bonded to a former Traveler like Rodriguez . . . I was just waiting for the fireworks to start.
“So Archer killed you and took your body?” Joe said.
Rodriguez sneered at him. “You really are just all muscle and no brain, aren’t you? Archer is a Symbiont. He can’t possess a dead body.” He looked at me, the remnants of the box still in his hands. “Now that I have the Archer, you’re nothing. You’ll never regain your ability to be the Wraith again, much less an Irin.”
I narrowed my eyes at him again. I could almost feel Archer—the familiar glow increasing. Rodriguez thought it was power. I thought it was a countdown. “So—why are you threatening me with the box and the key? If you have the Archer—this incredible power you seem to think he signifies—then why do you want this Eidolon?”
He smiled. “Ah—but why is that, Miss Martinique? Have you wondered why all of this happened? Have you puzzled it out yet?”
I glanced at Dags and Joe. They were glaring at him. Dags had both hands spread open, palms focused, though his left palm was dark. Alice was definitely out of commission for the moment. I sort of wondered how familiars fixed that problem. Like, did Dags have to plug in to an Ethereal juice box somewhere?
“Have you?” Dags asked me.
I looked at Rodriguez. “My dad made a blue Eidolon. He made it because he wanted me to have a normal life.”
Rodriguez made a scrunchy face. “Stupid Adiran. Did he really think after what happened that he could father a truly human child? And that child could ever be normal?”
“He loved me.”
“He was foolish,” Rodriguez said, and lowered the box. I knew this was Rodriguez talking, not TC. “He loved your mother more than common sense. Did you know it was me?” He pointed to his chest with his right hand. “Me that realized he wasn’t living anymore? Yes, yes, that was me. I knew there was a fifth body in that laboratory. And it wasn’t Domas’s body like they all thought it was. It was Adiran’s body—burned beyond identification. So when he showed up in physical form everyone assumed he’d survived. But I could see.” He pointed at his eyes. “I could see.”
Joe leaned in close. “Is it me—or is he sort of losing it?”
I leaned in to him. “Just keep watching. Trust me.”
“Is he right? Is what he’s saying the truth?”
I nodded but directed my attention to Rodriguez. “Did my father know you had discovered his secret?”
“Not at first. I was good. I watched. I guided the Society, and I studied Domas’s notes. But they were incomplete. I wanted to know how he’d done it—how Adiran had bridged the worlds. How was he able to be dead and be living.”
Dags swallowed, and he looked at me. So did Joe. I ignored them. “You experimented. On yourself.”
“Yes, yes. I no longer had the applicants that Domas had—and his youngest niece—the only niece talented enough even to try tests on—was hopelessly in love with a dead man.”
Wait—youngest niece? I had extended family somewhere?
“When Nona a
nnounced she was pregnant, I was shocked. Almost horrified. How could this be? Adiran was nothing more than a spirit. And then I knew he had to be more, and I had to achieve what he had achieved. And yes, I used the same techniques on myself. And I was able to walk between the worlds—to become solid while out of my body—and I could fly—”
Joe swore.
Dags remained quiet. Maureen stood just behind him, but I sensed she was ready to defend her Guardian at a moment’s notice.
“But it failed,” I said, remembering my father’s words. “You missed something important. And instead of attaining the ability to walk successfully, you split yourself into two halves.” I took in a deep breath. “You created a Horror.”
Rodriguez’s glare if armed could have sliced me into pieces. He took a step toward me, and I held my ground. “It was your father who destroyed half of me.”
“The half the Phantasm controlled,” Maureen said.
“Your father knew what would happen to you if he didn’t make it back. And he’d planned all along to seal your powers with the stone. He’d only half told your mother everything—and Nona understood so little of it. When he was locked to the Ethereal plane—that knowledge was lost. And your mother—seeing her vanished husband’s power reflected in her child—used that Eidolon the only way she knew how.”
My memory of that afternoon became clear now—not so shadowed. I had indeed found the Eidolon in that box, and it had knocked me back. Not a spider. And my mother had—
My mother had used it. And I’d forgotten all about Bobby. And the other ghosts.
Everything.
Until the rape. And the spell was broken.
Joe had been following my thoughts. “So why did it happen this time? Nona’s been in a coma in a long-term-care facility. There’s no way she could have sealed Zoë’s power again.”
Rodriguez laughed. He was looking a little pale now. And sweating. He breathed a bit hard too, as if he were running uphill.
Any minute, I was sure.
But we needed information first.
“Tell me,” I said.
“I don’t know the particulars. I just know that you somehow touched or got near the damned thing again. And that triggered Nona’s spell. You were sealed once again, only it took a little longer to take hold. And when that happened—with you as a Wraith—you were separated. As I was.”
“Separated?” Dags said.
“Her connection to the Abysmal had just evolved, you idiots.” Rodriguez’s color worsened. He was nearly as white as paper. And then his cheeks were tinged with red, as if he were sunburned.
“Hey, you need to sit down?” Joe said, Mr. Polite to the Bad Guy.
But Rodriguez reached inside his suit jacket and pulled out a gun. He aimed it at Joe.
Everyone stepped back but me.
“You leave me alone. Zoë’s Wraith is out there, killing people, building power, and the Phantasm is using it. I don’t intend on getting stuck here on the physical plane while he comes through and has his fill of souls.”
I stepped forward, facing down the gun. Like it could affect my OOB form? “I don’t understand—you’re saying when I was locked away from my Wraith abilities—it gained its own form?”
“Just like mine did.” He licked his lips. Wiped his forehead with his shirtsleeve. He was turning a bright red now. And it was a little disconcerting. “And once it roamed the Abysmal plane, the Phantasm snatched it up. He sent it after the Archer—to destroy your tap into his territory. But you were already fading from view. He was laughing at you—marveling in the new skin you’d left him.”
Skin?
I wasn’t liking the sound of this.
I moved quickly this time and snatched the box from him. He didn’t put up much of a fight—he was panting too hard. Sweat fell from his face in rivulets. And he was the color of a ripe tomato.
Stepping back, I reached my hand into the area where I could see the key. It vanished from sight as my fingers wrapped around the cool metal of the object, and I pulled it back out. I held it up to him. “This is the key to where that damned Eidolon is.”
Rodriguez nodded. “The Phantasm wants it. He wants to destroy you—and Archer—”
I wanted to ask him more. To know what it meant that the Phantasm was wearing my other half. I was still missing information—there were holes that I didn’t understand.
But there were also holes starting to form on Rodriguez’s body. He still clutched the gun, but circles starting burning through, with dark, black smoke billowing out of them. He opened his mouth to scream, but more smoke came out. And in that black nothing I saw faces writhing and screaming. I could even hear Rodriguez’s unspoken cry for help.
“Get back!” I yelled.
But Dags, Joe, and Maureen were already out the door when Francisco Rodriguez exploded from the inside out. Luckily I was incorporeal, technically, so most of the meat and blood, bone and organ went through me.
Doesn’t mean I didn’t notice it. I did.
I also noticed that Rodriguez’s soul was no more.
Poof.
And when the oogy cleared, I saw an all-too-familiar face looking back at me with black shades.
He held out his hands. “Hey, lover. I told you I’d get the answers we needed. Now we go kick some Horror ass.”
27
“ZOË—get out of the way!”
You know—you just had to love these guys.
Joe and Dags ran back into the room, Dags with his palms facing TC, blue-white Witch Fire churning just an inch from his skin. And then Joe, with his gun unholstered and aimed at the Symbiont’s chest.
TC gave all of them a half smile—and put his hands out to his sides. He wasn’t wearing the long trench coat anymore, but had switched up to a leather peacoat with a flared collar. Either way—it was still the Archer.
Vin Diesel, in stereo.
I can’t say I was too afraid, and my libido—now fully awakened again—did give a little meeeeeooowwww . . .
I knew he wasn’t fully back yet—he’d only burned up Rodriguez’s soul in order to gain just enough juice to get the information we needed and go after the Horror.
Which meant—going after Daniel.
I stepped between the two men and TC and held out my own hands. “Relax—put your weapons away. Please.”
“Zoë—that’s him—isn’t it? That’s that Archer guy,” Joe said as he kept his gaze and his aim on TC.
“Yes, that’s him.” I glanced back. TC looked as cocky and arrogant as ever. “And he’s not here to hurt.”
“Oh?” Dags said, and his voice cracked just a tad. “Then what the hell did he just do to Rodriguez?” He looked around the room with barely subdued joy. “Who else’s body is splattered all over Nona’s things? You know she’s gonna be mad about this.”
Yes, I knew that. But I’d worry about that later. And why is he so happy?
TC spoke up to defend himself. “I exacted a payment upon a man who had evaded his punishment for a very long time.” Archer brushed his hands together. “And I must say”—he put a hand to his lips and gave a dainty burp—“it was tasty.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Joe said. “How the hell are we gonna explain this mess? Just say that Rodriguez exploded in Nona’s bedroom?”
TC shrugged. “Not my problem.” He looked at me. “Got the key?”
I held it up. “It fits a tin box—looks like Animal Crackers.”
Archer nodded and disappeared.
I turned back to Dags and Joe. They were lowering their weapons and not looking very happy. Especially Dags. “You’re going to explain this, right?”
I smiled. Maybe. Not now.
Archer appeared again, his hands clasped in front of him with glee. “The box is downstairs—did you realize you’ve got a houseful of people down there? And they’re wheeling your body out, by the way.”
Joe was still looking at the bedroom. “This is . . . wow . . .”
“Okay, lov
er. As you are right now, you’re technically sort of just an out-of-body soul. Let’s get things moving and get the Wraith back in business. A little physical, and we should be back in business.”
TC started to step forward, but I held up my hand. “Not so fast. Weren’t you listening?”
Joe snorted. “Wow . . . all muscle and no brain.”
TC looked at Joe and pointed to him like some thug on the street. “Look, man, I can rend your body into a million pieces and suck your soul through this with a straw.” He held up his right hand to show the spinning red light.
“If you could really do that”—Joe crossed his hands over his chest, his gun still in his right—“you’d have already done it. Look, I don’t buy this whole nice-guy routine you got going with Zoë here. You’re evil, you’re a pawn, and evil pawns only look out for themselves.”
Cooper’s voice was coming up the steps. Evidently the captain had recovered. “Halloran?”
Joe swore and reholstered is gun. “Look, I’ll keep Cooper busy.” He looked at Dags. “You call and tell me what’s happening.” He glanced at TC. “And if he makes a move, dissolve his Abysmal ass.”
“Joe,” I called out to him and picked my way over the bits and pieces of flesh, bone, and blood—though I didn’t know why. I wasn’t going to leave a mark. He waited for me just outside the door, at the top of the stairs but away from the bedroom and Dags’s eyesight. His expression was less than happy. “Look, whatever they do, don’t let them pull the plug. My body’s going to seem hopeless for a while—like before.”
He looked at me. “You slept with him. With Dags—not Daniel. I was wrong.”
I blinked. What the fuck did that have to do with anything? “What fucking business is that of yours?”
“Well, in case you haven’t noticed, dearie, the boy loves you. Has loved you for a while, and until now you barely gave him the time of day—except to use his little power here and there. And now you slept with him?”
I stared at Joe—really stared at him—and through him. Being Ethereal didn’t make me omniscient. It didn’t make me godlike. I wasn’t much different than I was before, and Joe was still mostly unreadable. “What does it matter to you?”
Phantasm Page 23
