by Gary Jonas
The women looked at me. A few of them smiled.
“Oh, he’s cute,” one of them said.
“Don’t tell him that,” Kelly said. “It will go straight to his head. See you in a few.”
I took off my shoes and padded onto the mats. “Is everyone here?”
The woman who thought I was cute did a quick head count. “I think we’re waiting on Margie.”
“Well, it’s not quite five. Let’s give her a few minutes. Everyone keep stretching.”
I approached Naomi.
“How did it go?” she asked.
“It didn’t.” I told her about the empty floor, and she seemed surprised by the news. If she were acting, she’d been giving lessons to Meryl Streep.
“And?” she said.
“I think they lied to you.”
“Al must have known I’d tell you where they were.”
“He doesn’t like me.”
“I don’t think he cares one way or the other about you. He’s not a big fan of Kelly, though.”
“Really?” I said and sat down. I rubbed my ribs, which still ached. “Because she’s a Sekutar? Does he know she considers herself a ronin?”
“That’s part of what scares him.”
“What are you not telling me?”
She sighed. “Ravenwood is a major threat, Jonathan. If he can control Sekutar, that means he can control Kelly.”
The door opened and a pudgy woman entered. She clutched her purse as if it held her life savings. I made a wild guess that it was Margie.
“Sorry I’m late,” Margie said.
“No problem,” I said.
“Who are you?”
“I’m filling in for Kelly for a few minutes.”
“But Kelly’s here, right?”
“She’s upstairs.” I turned to Naomi. “Nobody can control Kelly, so don’t worry about it.”
“But—”
I held up a hand. “We’ll talk later.” I pushed myself to my feet and called the class to order. I had the women join Naomi on the benches.
I opened Kelly’s weapons case and removed a package of plastic combs. They were yellow and had handles. I opened the pack, handed a comb to each of the women, and kept one for myself.
“Today,” I said, “we’re going to talk about the value of combs.”
“This isn’t a beauty class,” Margie said. She held her purse in her lap with both hands. “It’s supposed to be self-defense.”
“Exactly,” I said. “And a comb is a great item to have with you at all times.”
They looked at me as if I were crazy.
“In some self-defense classes, they teach you to carry your car keys with you as you go to your car.”
I pulled out my keys and held them so one key stuck out from between the index and middle finger of my right hand.
“They say that if you’re attacked, you should punch your attacker with a key like so.” I demonstrated a simple punch.
“There are problems with this, of course. For one thing, you’re going to cut up your fingers in the process. While that’s better than getting raped, a far better way to go is to prevent the attack altogether.”
“And a comb will do that?” someone asked.
“A lot better than keys,” I said. “The fact is that if you’re carrying a comb with you, most attackers will see that you have something in your hand, but they won’t necessarily see that it’s a comb. It could be a weapon, so odds are they’ll wait for easier prey. Part of this is situational awareness. If you look like you’re ready for action, it goes a long way toward keeping you safe.”
“But if they attack you, wouldn’t it be better to have a knife or gun?” Margie asked.
“Depends. Are you skilled with a knife or a gun? What if the attacker takes those away from you? Now you’ve given them a weapon to use against you. But if they take away the comb, what are they going to do? Fix your hair for you?”
This got a laugh.
“Let’s say you’re carrying the comb and some moron does try to attack you. You simply slash the attacker’s face with the comb.” I demonstrated a simple swipe that used one of the handwork patterns Kelly always introduced in her first class. “Now not only have you marked your attacker for the police lineup, but you also have DNA evidence to back you up.” I pointed to the end of the comb.
“Can I try?” Margie asked.
“Sure.”
She set her purse aside and approached me, holding her comb.
“I’ll attack and you defend,” I said.
She started to walk past me, and I grabbed her. She spun and with an incredible fury, she slashed at me with the comb. I dodged the attack.
“Whoa, Margie. Calm down.”
She didn’t calm down. “Combs are useless,” she said and pulled a gun from her waistband. “I want more stopping power.”
Where the hell did she get a damn gun? I wondered. When she pointed it at me, I darted in and slapped the gun to the side, away from the women on the bench. She fired as I moved, but the shot went wide. A gun is a fixed weapon, so it’s dangerous only when it’s pointed at you. As I slapped the gun hand to the side, I grabbed her wrist and twisted hard. She dropped the gun. I swept her feet and slammed her to the floor a little harder than I would in a normal demonstration.
At that moment, Kelly returned. “Who the hell fired a gun in my dojo?”
She saw me holding Margie down while the rest of the class stared in slack-jawed silence.
“Jonathan?”
I looked up at Kelly. “Your student tried to kill me.”
“Get off her,” Kelly said.
I did as she said. Kelly helped Margie to her feet. “Are you okay?”
Margie answered by trying to claw Kelly’s eyes. Kelly caught her hands and twisted them inward, pushing her to the floor again. Margie gasped in pain.
“I don’t think this is Margie,” Kelly said.
“You think?”
“What the fuck?” Kelly said and released Margie. Kelly jumped back and shook her hands as if she’d been stung. She doesn’t really feel pain, so it was something else.
Naomi approached but I pushed her toward the bench. “Stay back.”
Margie climbed to her feet. “You’re better than I thought,” she said.
“Kelly, you cool?”
“Something tried to enter me,” Kelly said.
Margie laughed. “You’re very fast,” she said to Kelly then turned to me. “You’re slower, but this body has severe limitations.”
“Ravenwood?”
“In someone else’s flesh.” Margie’s voice and body but Ravenwood’s spirit. Ravenwood turned to Kelly. “You should join me. I have a place for a warrior like you.”
“Fuck off,” Kelly said.
“If you change your mind, the offer stands.” Ravenwood turned to me. “I may have a use for you too, though I suspect you won’t see things my way and I may have to kill you.”
“You may have to kill me? You sound regretful.”
Ravenwood laughed. “Only a little.”
Naomi tried to approach, but I held her back. “Don’t.”
Ravenwood-as-Margie smiled. “We’ll talk later,” she said. Then she reached up, took hold of her chin with one hand, and the top of her head with the other. She gave a savage twist. The sick sound of snapping bones filled the dojo. Margie crumpled to the floor.
Ravenwood’s spirit stood there, smiling. He looked at me then at Kelly. I tried to make sure I stared directly at Margie on the floor in case he hadn’t realized I could actually see him. He looked at me for a moment then turned toward the door.
Esther rushed over and tried to grab him but hit the end of her fifteen-foot limit. “You’re not going anywhere,” she said. “Try and take my Jonathan for a ride, and I’ll wring your neck for real.”
Ravenwood stared at her as she strained to reach him. “Interesting,” he said. He looked back at me. I tried to avert my eyes, but he caught me. “I was ri
ght. You can see me.”
I ignored the chaos of the women rushing to Margie’s side and screeching about someone calling 911. As far as I was concerned, there were only two of us in the room: Ravenwood and myself.
I nodded. “I can see you.”
“They were wrong about you,” he said. “You don’t seem to have any magic, but you have a ghost, which suggests you’re a necromancer. You have a Sekutar for a bodyguard, which suggests a wizard or sorcerer of great strength. Yet you didn’t even notice me trying to enter you during the demonstration. You’re an enigma. Very interesting.”
“I’ll show you interesting,” I said.
“Another time, perhaps. It’s my turn.” He looked at the people in the dojo. Then he pointed at Kelly’s students. Every single one of them stiffened then dropped to the floor.
“What the fuck?” Kelly said.
“Check them,” Ravenwood said. “I’ll wait.”
I rushed to the first woman and checked her pulse. She was dead. “The others?” I asked.
Kelly and Naomi checked pulses. The students were all dead. Ravenwood had simply pointed to them and they died.
“What’s going on, Jonathan?” Kelly asked.
“Is it Ravenwood?” Naomi asked.
“I want you to think about something,” Ravenwood said.
I stood and turned to face him. “They were innocent women!”
He waved the thought away with the flick of a wrist. “I did that without a body to channel my energy. Take this as a warning.”
“You killed them!”
“They were mere humans.” He approached me and stared into my eyes. “You and your friends are only alive because I may have a use for you.”
Ravenwood walked toward the exit, but to get there he entered Esther’s reach. She tried to grab him. He slapped her hard across the face, and she fell to the floor, stunned.
He looked back at me, waved, and walked out the door.
I’d never seen anything make contact with Esther. I rushed to her. “Are you all right?”
She held a hand to her face and looked as surprised as I. “It hurts.”
“But you’re not alive. How can you feel pain?”
“I don’t know but I’m not making it up.” She moved her hand, and I could see a red handprint on her cheek.
“Wow, he left a mark.”
“What?” Esther said. “Is it bad?”
Even ghosts are vain.
I heard sirens in the distance and realized that someone must have called 911 before Ravenwood killed her. I sat down next to Esther and sighed.
“The coppers are coming,” Esther said.
I nodded.
“What are you going to tell them?”
I looked at the corpses of the women and saw Kelly rise and stare at me. I turned back to Esther. “I don’t know.”
But the sirens went past the dojo. They must have been on a call to somewhere else. I felt relieved by that, but that felt wrong because Ravenwood had just killed twelve women without blinking an eye. I felt like a total scumbag to find relief there. That didn’t help the women he killed.
Kelly walked over and pulled me aside. “Those were good women,” Kelly said.
“I’m sorry. He just pointed at them and they died.”
Kelly closed her eyes. “We let them down, Jonathan. I let them down.”
“Kelly—”
“Don’t. We’re supposed to protect those who can’t protect themselves. That’s one of the things you taught me.”
I nodded. I thought I might be sick.
“We failed,” she said.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Kelly frowned at me. “Why did Ravenwood kill them all?”
“I don’t know.”
Naomi placed a hand on my shoulder. “With Margie, it was the safest exit he had at hand. With the others, it was a demonstration.”
“Something you want to tell us?”
Naomi shrugged. “Ravenwood can possess anyone he wants. Well, except for you, Jonathan. To transfer to another host body, he needs physical contact. You saved me by pushing me back. He tried to get into Kelly, but she was too fast. You, as always, are immune to direct magic. If he can’t transfer, he simply kills the host to set his spirit free. Since he couldn’t possess you, he wasn’t going to take any chances that you would trap him in Margie’s body. So he killed her.”
Kelly walked over to the bench and sat down.
“You okay, Kelly?” I asked.
“No.” Kelly ran a hand through her hair. “It’s my fault that she’s dead. It’s my fault that they’re all dead.”
I shook my head. “This is Ravenwood’s fault. He’s the one who murdered them.”
“Margie didn’t even want to come here,” Kelly said. “It was out of her way.”
“You talked her into it,” I said.
Kelly nodded. “I met her at a battered women’s shelter. She was so timid and skittish. I felt that I could help her, build her confidence, teach her to defend herself. If I’d left her alone, she’d still be alive. Hell, they’d all still be alive.”
“You couldn’t know this would happen,” Naomi said.
“Actions have consequences,” Kelly said. “I accept that. But I also accept responsibility for my students’ deaths. If I wanted to pass the blame around, I could lay the whole thing on you, Naomi. If you hadn’t come back into Jonathan’s life, none of this would have happened.”
“Let’s not do this,” I said. “I’m sorry about Margie and the others.”
Kelly stood and kissed me on the cheek. “I know you are. But Naomi is still holding out on us.” She turned and glared at Naomi. “Aren’t you?”
“What do you mean?”
“You know how Ravenwood transfers. You played dumb when Cantrell brought him up at the restaurant, but you knew Ravenwood was involved. That’s why you hired Jonathan.”
“Oh, come on,” Naomi said.
“Tell me I’m wrong.”
“I know you’re upset, but remember that Ravenwood possessed my father and killed my mother.”
“Well there you go, Naomi. You hired Jonathan to prove that your father was innocent. I think we’ve established that.”
“And?”
“And nothing,” Kelly said. “Your father is innocent. Case closed. Go away.”
“I can’t do that. My father’s name has not been cleared.”
“The body count isn’t high enough for you yet?”
“It’s not like that.”
“Could have fooled me.”
“Okay, that’s enough,” I said.
“No,” Kelly said. “I have a theory. I think Naomi knew Ravenwood was loose before she ever hired you.” She turned to Naomi. “Care to deny it?”
Naomi didn’t say anything.
“And there you go,” Kelly said. “The truth is in the silence.”
I didn’t know what to say.
“You going to admit it?” Kelly asked.
Naomi nodded. “Fine, I knew Ravenwood was loose. I was there when he got free, but he still has to be stopped.”
I closed my eyes. “You were there?” I opened them and stared at her.
“Yes. My father brought the three crystals together, thinking that—”
“He did what?” Kelly said. “Was he really that stupid?”
“He thought that with my help and the help of the two custodians who protected the other crystals that we could control him. Unfortunately Ravenwood killed the other two wizards and possessed my father. I wasn’t actually in the room, so I was able to get away.”
“This all happened without Al knowing anything about it?” I asked.
“Anselma approved the project. We had the three crystals in the same room for weeks with no problem. My father and the other custodians ran test after test, and there didn’t seem to be any danger. They had three Sekutar warriors guarding the room just in case.”
“Three?” Kelly asked.
Naomi sighed.
“DGI secretly kept at least seven warriors alive.”
