At that moment I had two things come to me—doubled over in pain. One was that he’d just blown a small wad by telling me in an indirect way that Daniel’s soul was still alive because it resided in his DNA. And secondly—
Somebody was whispering something to me.
Hit him!
I hissed again, covering up my own whispered “What?”
“Zoë, you’re just stupid. You’ve always been stupid. I mean—how could the universe grant such gifts to a moron? You get clues all the time, and you’re not paying attention. You get into trouble every time you turn around.”
Hit him!
I was listening to both voices now—Daniel’s annoying droning on about how stupid I was and the whisper.
“You’ll never be anything but an underwear salesgirl. Or maybe you should work in food service—wait no. You burn water.” He snapped his fingers. “I know!”
Abruptly the pain in my chest vanished.
Hit him, you idiot!
The whisper sounded a lot like—
If you don’t fucking kick him in the balls, I swear I will disown you!
MOM!
30
ONCE I realized who was whispering, my initial thought was to find out where she was. But then I thought about what she said, and she was right.
“. . . Moronic view on things. You’re just a stupid, dumb bitch . . .”
I took in a deep breath—surprised that Ethereal beings actually breathed in the Abysmal—straightened up, opened my chi, aimed, and kicked the ever-loving shit out of his balls.
In fact, I kicked so hard I lost footing and actually landed on my ass in midair. Nice trick. Need to see that one work in the physical plane. Daniel might be possessed by a Horror, but he was still a man, and the Horror was in a man’s body, subject to all the aches and pains that physical body had. I wasn’t surprised at all when he doubled over and went down on his knees.
I also suspected the sensation wouldn’t keep a Horror down as long as it would a normal man. So once I had my balance, I struck a right cross across his jaw. He fell backward, sprawled on the corner.
After a few seconds I let out a whoop of pain and shook my right hand a couple of times. Good God that hurts!
That was great—but you’re gonna have to get him to Archer.
Mom? I looked around the empty corner, but all I could see was the shop, the postal box, and the trash can. “Where are you?”
Go get Rhonda and get out of here—
Daniel was moving again, if a bit slow.
“Where’s Rhonda?” I shouted out.
That’s when I heard the weirdest noise—sort of like stretching or tearing metal. I turned to look at the postal box. Was it moving? No—that wasn’t making the noise. I turned and looked at the trash can.
It was moving, and writhing and bending and twisting. I moved back from it as it actually formed into something that looked like a human. Within a few seconds it was Rhonda—standing in front of me. And she didn’t look so good. Her skin was ashen—like gray smoke—and her eyes were white.
I wanted to ask a thousand questions as to why she wasn’t screaming in pain like Dags had that time; but she was limping toward me, her hands out. When she fell into my arms, I didn’t bother to ask. She was light against me, like lifting a feather, and I darted up above the buildings. “Where’s Mom?” I had to ask.
“She’s fine.” Rhonda’s voice was almost as gravelly as my own. Her expression was one of pain. “Just get me out of here. Please, Zoë. I can’t take . . . I just didn’t know . . .”
I nodded to myself and rose as high as I could, with her in my arms. I paused in midflight and listened for TC. I felt him pulling and dove in that direction to a tall building several miles away. I was a bullet as I approached the building, and I could see TC from where I was. He stood on the building’s edge, waving his arms—the only other moving thing besides myself.
The building on this side wasn’t as ornate as the one on the physical plane. It was flat, with just a few buildings for maintenance. But like everything else it looked—empty.
Until it exploded.
THE concussion of the impact literally blew me and Rhonda backward. I tumbled in midair as Rhonda screamed. I kept hold of her through the turmoil until I could orient myself and figure out which way was up. My wings beat as quick as they could to stop my momentum—and I was amazed at how they worked much like my heart or lung did. It was all an autonomic extension of myself—something that just worked without me thinking about it.
When I was able to steady myself and look back—there wasn’t anything left of the building’s roof. Not even TC. But I knew inside he wasn’t gone—he was still there. Lurking.
But what I needed to know was what had caused the rooftop to explode in the first place.
“I swear I’ll destroy you and your body!” came a cry from above me.
I twisted and looked up.
Daniel was coming in fast, his left arm at his side, but in his right he had thrust out a huge, ice blue sword, and he was being carried through the Abysmal air by two enormous white wings. The wings glowed with an almost Ethereal light, and I had to spring to my left to avoid a collision. But he was prepared for that and lashed out at me with the ice blue sword in his hand.
It nicked my left leg, and I screamed.
Goddamnitthatmotherfuckinghurt!
And I nearly dropped Rhonda. She held on to me with a strength I hadn’t realized she had as I dove away from Daniel.
But he was after me, sword blazing.
“They’re black,” Rhonda said in a quiet voice. I was surprised I could hear her through the rush of wind.
“What?”
“Your wings—they’re black. And they’re just as huge.”
Oh. Okay. Black wings. That’s nice. “I’m more worried about that sword.”
“Can—can you use one too? You are equals, remember?”
Equals.
Maybe. But that was between me and the Horror inside of Daniel. Daniel was being punished, his body abused by the Horror, just as Rhonda’s was, by being dragged into this stupid battle. And I wasn’t dumb to the fact that the Phantasm was the one pulling the strings.
So—I can have a sword too, eh? That’s great—but I can’t do any fighting with Rhonda in my arms. And what about the gate? Where’s TC? If I bring Daniel through at a different point, Dags and Joe won’t be there with the Eidolon, and there’s no way I can defeat the Horror without it.
That much I’m sure of.
“Put me down,” Rhonda said. “Archer will find me.”
I knew that. But—“I don’t want him eating you. I’m working with him, but I sure as shit don’t trust him.”
“That’s good to know, Zoë. Maybe you are finally growing up.”
As I moved back and forth through the night sky, zigging and zagging to avoid the thrusts of Daniel’s sword, I glanced down at Rhonda. There was something different about her face. Something . . . older?
“Archer won’t eat me.” She gave me a devilish smile, and it looked really white and creepy with her gray skin. “You’ll have to trust me on this.”
Uh-huh. Right. So why did I just get a chill down my spine?
I dropped down a few feet, my ears popping at the change in pressure, and darted between buildings. The target building was still a smoldering hunk of ash, but the building next to it was just fine. And flat. In fact, there appeared to be a garden of some sort on top of it.
I came around the side of the building, then straight up, and somehow landed—er—sort of—on the roof. It was more of an actual stumble-run. I tripped and dropped Rhonda, then I crashed into a potted tree.
Hrm . . . needed to work on my landing.
Luckily I hadn’t really hurt myself, but the terra-cotta urn the tree was in—that was a different story. I think I’d used my head—no sweat.
“Douse your wings!” Rhonda hissed as she sort of picked herself up as well.
Douse? Was that a word? B
ut somehow I could feel something itchy on my back and knew the wings were gone. It was just me again, bunny slippers à la Zoë.
I kinda liked this me better.
Taking a quick glance around, I saw that I’d been right that this was one of those rooftop gardens. Though I was a bit surprised at all the green. I hadn’t seen any green since arriving, so this made the garden sort of stick out like a beacon. There were trees everywhere—from apple, to plum, fig, pear, and cherry trees. There were bushes in low pots, and several large squares of actual grass, where the concrete had been covered over in dirt.
There was an arbor too, just in front of a large apple tree. It was painted white with red, white, and pink roses wrapping around it.
“This looks like a garden of Eden,” Rhonda said as she looked around.
Yeah, which was making me more nervous by the minute. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”
“Yes, Zoë, and, like all your bad feelings, it’s come just a little too late.”
Rhonda and I turned to face the arbor.
I expected to see Daniel there, his wings up, his sword in hand. But what greeted us was something a lot less dramatic.
I’d seen the figure before—dressed like this. It’d been outside the old demolished building across from Perimeter Place. He’d stood beside me as the Symbiont in Rollins worked its way toward Hirokumi and the child Susan inside the trunk of the Reverend’s car.
He wore a simple black hoodie, pulled down over his face, which was shrouded in shadows. From his waist down there was still nothing, only a hint of what could have been legs.
Or tentacles.
The hoodie was short-sleeved, and his arms stuck out with muscular precision. In fact, his whole torso looked different than it had, as if a boy had become a man. And that man did some serious weights.
Rhonda took a step back, and I could see in her eyes that she felt the power emanating from this figure.
I’d faced him recently too—and he’d turned himself into a clown. Because he knew I hated them.
He straightened, and I was again aware of his bulk, the curve of his shoulders and definition of his chest beneath the soft cotton of his shirt.
Phantasm.
“Welcome to my garden, Irin. My garden of Eden.”
“You ditched the clown suit?” I said, with a bravado I did NOT feel. But hey, what else was I gonna do?
He reached up with his hands and took the sides of the hood. I tensed—I’d never seen his face. Only the images he’d wanted me to see. The mask the first time, and the clown the second. Would he show me his face this time?
But when he lowered the hood, the face wasn’t original. It was Daniel’s visage. Only his eyes were solid black. “Does this face suit you better?”
“Let Daniel go,” I said, and took a step forward.
“Ah.” The Phantasm held up his right hand. “No, no, no. I see something else in your heart—oh, a recent victory! My, my, my! Zoë! You had sex!”
I gaped at him. What? Is this written on a billboard somewhere?
“Perhaps a change of scenery.” And he moved his hand across his face.
It shifted and changed, and abruptly I was looking at Dags’s face.
I gritted my teeth. “Stop it.”
“Oh? You don’t want to see the face of your lover? Come now—you do realize how hard he’s fighting for you right now, don’t you? He and that bumbling mortal, trying so hard to save the woman they love.”
Shit. Damn. It had been pointless to keep secrets, hadn’t it? Because the Phantasm always seemed to know everything!
“You . . .” Rhonda said in a small voice to my left. I looked at her, and she was looking at me. “You slept with . . . Darren?”
Oh. Shit. Not. Now.
Christ.
I glared at her with as much sarcasm as I could muster—and
I got a lot of that. “Get a grip on yourself, Rhonda. I can’t have you go all jealous right now.”
“But you know how I feel about him!”
Sonofa—
“Rhonda—it was a moment, okay?” Well, it was longer than a moment, but still—“Get over it. I’m not in love with Joe.”
Joe? Why’d I say Joe?
She looked as confused as I felt. “Joe? Did you sleep with Joe or with Darren?”
“I slept with Darren! And what the fuck do you care? You slept with Joe!” There! I’d said it. I don’t know why that felt all good but it did.
Her eyes widened even more—if that was possible. “No . . . we never . . . I never . . .” She put her right hand to her heart. “Zoë, Joe’s in love with you, and I’m not in love with him. I could never sleep with a man I’m not in love with.”
There is a noise that happens, in my head, when I realize I’ve made a terrible boo-boo of ultimately epic proportions. It’s kind of like the cracking of glass, lots of it. And there is a scream.
This was one of those instances.
I knew I’d fucked up. Big-time. And let my libido make a monkey out of me. I’d slept with a man I didn’t really love. I liked Dags, a lot. And he was a great friend. But—
“Oh God, you don’t love him,” Rhonda said. “All this time I didn’t see that. I didn’t realize it—”
The Phantasm was laughing. And that was pissing me off. I turned to face him. “Will you knock it off already? Wipe that face off and show me what you really look like.”
He did stop laughing, but not smiling. Instead he held up his right hand.
Daniel appeared then. Just pop. Beside the Phantasm, his sword glowing ice blue light. His wings were folded back, and his eyes were now totally black as well. And he was pointing those eerie peepers at me.
“I look like many things, Zoë. I warned you months ago not to take the deal with Archer. But you ignored me. I tried to warn you about the chains that some would put around you. By that I meant your father. And still you moved on, you evolved into something that not even I could control, or defeat.
“Until miraculously, the chains I’d tried to warn you about took hold of you and set you free. Your Wraith self—the part birthed by yours and Archer’s unions—was loose and mine for the picking. I failed before in controlling a Horror—in making it totally mine. And your father defeated me with the power of the Eidolon that bound you.” He smiled, and I wished like hell he didn’t look like Dags. “And now I have the key to undoing what your father did. If you’d died as a Wraith—I would have been defeated because you would have ruled here in my stead. But as an Irin”—he smiled—“I can simply do to you what I did to your father.”
And with those words he lifted his right hand.
The air beside the arbor warped and twisted as something materialized. It took a wirelike shape and wrapped itself around the roses and wood of the structure. Abruptly it became solid—and I gasped as I stepped back.
It was a snake—a black snake, with tiny black wings and a human face.
A’s face.
“D-Daddy?”
It turned and focused black eyes on me, and a forked tongue slithered between its lips.
“I control your father’s essence, Zoë. I can change his form into anything I want. This is his Abysmal self, the part of him that was trapped here when he sacrificed himself to defeat me. An eternity as my plaything, isn’t that right, Adiran?”
The human snake head turned and looked at the Phantasm, then looked back at me. This was my father? But what about the man I’d seen in my dream? The man with the ponytail and the flannel shirt? The man Tim and Steve called A?
“He did it to protect you,” the Phantasm said. “So now I’ll use him to kill you.” He waved his hand again, and a gate opened. A hole into the living world.
And to my horror, the snake thing dove inside of it. I yelled out and tried to get to the gate, but Daniel was there, waving his sword, and I staggered back.
“Now, Zoë,” the Phantasm said, “it’s time to finish this. It’s time to fight your Horror.”
&n
bsp; Abruptly, Daniel’s body erupted in flames. He screamed as his flesh melted away, vanished into bone, until there was nothing left of him.
“DANIEL!”
He was gone . . . I’d watched him melt away completely.
No . . . there was something left.
Standing where he’d stood was a magnificent female being, dressed in white light. Its wings were points of crystal that reached almost the breadth of the rooftop garden. Robes of white moved in the wind and glittered with snowflakes of solid ice.
Her skin was pale and glowed with its own internal light. Her eyes were silver inside of sparkling eyelashes, and her hair was a silver-white and flowed around her robes. Yet along the left temple and down the length of its strands was one dark streak, a black river that ran through a snow-blind mountain.
And her face was my face.
“May I show you, my dear Zoë, your Horror. Your Abysmal self. And my key to your destruction.”
31
LET me go on record as saying this right now—and not in a gay way. But wow . . . my Wraith self was very sexy. She looked like a Valkyrie. Not sure about the white, snow-queen look though.
She held out her right hand, and the sword appeared there again. The same one Daniel had been using.
Daniel!
“You’ve got to fight, Zoë,” Rhonda said as she stood beside me. I still sensed animosity and frustration from her, but she was calmer. And she was still very gray.
“Fight? With that?” I looked at her. “Maybe I should open a door for you? Get you home?”
A scream brought my attention back to what was in front of me. White Zoë was rushing at me, her sword drawn and wielded over her head in both hands. I moved to stand in front of Rhonda and yelled out myself—
Something shifted inside of me. It wasn’t a bad sensation—but it was definitely not a natural one. Not natural in that I didn’t think this was supposed to happen in the physical world. I felt my wings unfurl in an instant, my physical shape shifted, and I was larger than before. I screamed out as I felt my teeth lengthen and every one of my senses heighten in an instant. I could see better than before, and the White Zoë’s movements seemed sluggish. Almost as if she were moving through water.
Phantasm Page 26
