by Amie Gibbons
“What happened?” I asked.
He grinned. “Once a tulpa is human, it is a powerful one, a magical one, yes, but it can be killed like anything else. After it fed enough to break away from its owners and original purpose, it went out to see the world, causing pain and despair in its wake because it could. Because that was all he knew. Because he was a dick of a human being. And he was tracked down and killed by a couple of Nazi hunters who knew how to take out magical beings. One of which was one of the men who was in Auschwitz and saw its creation.”
“So he helped create it and that helped him kill it?” Jet asked over the speaker phone.
“No.” Carvi laughed. “He was one of the men countering its influence, holding onto hope and convincing others to as well. He fought it with the best weapon he had, and kept himself and his friends from dying in there.”
He gave me a meaningful look and I smiled.
“He never gave up hope,” I said. “And that countered a despair tulpa.”
Carvi nodded. “In that situation, it wasn’t enough to stop the thing, but it did save him, and he took it out when he could.”
“So once this thing is alive, we can kill it,” I said. “That’s something.”
“Yes, but this is a specific spell,” Carvi said. “It is a part cut out of a person. But there’s still the spell tying men to limbo. That has nothing to do with a tulpa. In fact, that could be holding it back because it can’t use the full energies from their deaths since there is some energy keeping them trapped.”
“So, if hope countered a despair tulpa,” I said, “will forgiveness counter this one?”
Carvi tapped his nose. “This isn’t just revenge though. This was someone cutting out their pain. So it’s not just forgiveness of the men, it’s the women forgiving themselves for letting themselves be hurt, for whatever they did when they gave into the pain. Maybe even accepting the pain and letting themselves feel it.”
“But that would just slow it,” Mender said. “Do we need to stop this thing to save those men?”
“I don’t know,” Carvi said. “If I were a gambling man, I would put money on the tulpa and the limbo being created from the same spell. If so, then yes. I’m also willing to bet a thousand years that this was a botched spell by someone with no idea what she’s doing, which suggests some other power grabbed onto it and made it grow.”
“Whoa, what!” I asked.
He shrugged. “This is either a beautifully well-crafted spell of vengeance, in which case this woman is severely deranged if she thinks dozens to hundreds of men deserve this, or it was someone playing around, trying to remove her pain, and something else out there latched onto it and twisted it, like a genie.”
“There are genies now?” I asked.
“Not that I know of, I just meant the idea of a wish gone bad. My money’s on a Fae fucking with things, but I’m biased.”
“Would it have to be something expanding the spell on purpose?” Mender asked.
“No,” Carvi said. “The way this is playing out, I’m guessing not. It’s too messy, and the only thing getting energy is the tulpa. So if someone was trying to use these deaths for themselves, they were stupid about it. Anyone with that kind of power would know how to craft the spell better.
“But if a woman did the spell and it was heightened by Halloween’s power, and there was a Fae in town, with its magic adding to all this by whatever the Fae was doing, that could do it. This whole thing reeks of a confluence of crisscrossing powers and a woman who didn’t know what she was doing.”
“If we want to stop this thing before more men die, and before it becomes human,” I said, “how do we do that?”
Carvi took a deep breath. “We need to find the woman who made it, and convince her to take it back into herself.”
“Ummmmmm, that’s it?” I asked.
Carvi snorted. “Lea, this woman was so desperate to be rid of this, she did a spell she didn’t understand on Halloween in the hopes that it would take away her pain. You think getting her to take it back will be easy? On top of that, it is so strong that the only way of stopping it may very well entail her not just taking it back, but letting go of the pain and anger that made her do this in the first place. Do you have any idea how hard that would be?”
“Considerin’ I’ve been holding onto something for eight years now, yeah, got an inkling,” I said.
“Exactly.”
“So, on the side of that, which doesn’t sound likely, how do we stop this thing?”
He shook his head. “We can trap it to keep it from doing more damage, but until it’s human, or the spell that created it is undone, there’s not much we can do.”
“So that’s our focus,” Mender said. “We have roughly until seven a.m. until sunrise. That’s over eight hours. The men are already being moved to Vandy, and Dr. Williamson has called in colleagues specializing in nerve regeneration and stuff to help with the men’s bodies.”
“We have a line on Edmund’s ex?” I asked. “We’ve pretty much ruled out AB and Carolyn, so she’s our best bet.”
“Unless,” Dan said slowly, making me hop.
He’d been really quiet, which was soooo not like him.
“Unless the man with the ex who started this isn’t dead yet,” he said.
My stomach sank.
“We’ve been assumin’,” I said, “but we were sayin’ it could be any of these guys’ exes, meaning the guys who died first were before the one who did it, meaning technically, that guy may not be down yet.”
“Yeah,” Dan said, sarcasm crackling through the phone. “That’s what I just said.”
I growled under my breath. “Anyway,” I said. “If so, how do we even begin to find her?”
“You’re the psychic, Ryder,” Mender said. “I think that one’s on you. Dan is still working on finding Edmund’s ex. But if it’s not her, then…”
“Then it’s someone whose ex hasn’t been taken out yet,” Carvi said. “The more I’m thinking about it, the more it makes sense.”
I looked at him and Mender asked what I was thinking too, “How so?”
“Because if you did something dramatic like this,” Carvi said, “who would you leave as the grand finale?”
“Shit!” Mender said.
“Okay, so that’s our next task then,” I said. “Carvi and I figure out who that is.”
“You know how to do that?” Mender asked.
“No clue.” I shrugged. “We’re gonna figure it out though.”
“Let me know when you do.”
She hung up and the others on the call signed off.
I raised my eyebrows at Carvi. “Any ideas?”
He sighed, rubbing his face. “A few, but we’re talking about tracing the magic left around those men back to the source.”
“Like we did in July with the spells in the hotel?”
“Yes,” he said, “but more difficult. That magic was actively working and based in something. This was magic that went through these guys, barely touched them, and then left. There are traces, obviously, since we saw them connecting the dead men earlier, but those traces aren’t strong, and when we were in there before, none of them were showing where they came from. They glowed like dots, there were no strings.”
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“It means, lea, we are going to have to go deeper into the astral plane.”
My breath caught and my knees shook as copper coated my tongue.
“Like going near the Fae territory?” I asked.
“Similar,” he said. “Don’t think of it as going into Fae territory, like it’s all geographical. Think of it as different layers. Astral plane for visions is the first layer, when I pull you in and we can move around, that’s the second layer. We’re talking about going at least one and maybe more layers beyond that.”
“And the further from the world we are,” I said, “what happens?”
“The more energy it takes to get there, and to get
out,” he said.
“Has… have…”
“Yes,” Carvi said. “Yes, people have gotten stuck. They stay there for an eternity in the astral plane while their bodies just sit here, empty shells.”
I pressed my lips together and closed my eyes.
“Remember when we first met, lea?” he asked. “We were talking while you were asleep and I pulled you into the astral plane and you were trying to peek behind the curtain. You were looking at something, I don’t remember what, and tried to go further in and I pulled you back?”
I nodded. That sounded vaguely familiar.
“That’s what I was pulling you back from,” Carvi said. “That third layer.”
“And we may have to go further than that,” I said.
He nodded.
“Holy kitten crap,” I said.
Carvi snorted. “Where do you get these cutesy little swear words?”
“Mostly from Mama,” I said. “She has a lot of ‘em.”
“Before we do this, we’re going to need energy. A lot of it.” He grinned, wide and wolfish. “How do you feel about doing a little hunting with me, lea?”
He walked to the door and pulled it open, letting the noise and energy of Nashville nightlife pour in.
“You know,” I said, “I’m feelin’ pretty good about it.” I pointed at him. “No usin’ your powers on them though. Too close to takin’ drunk people.”
He grinned. “If you’re ruling out drunk people, you are severely limiting our options, lea.”
“I mean too far gone to consent to sex kinda drunk,” I said. “I know most people out there partying have been drinkin’ and are probably at least a little pickled. Just, you know, watch the line. I’m sensitive when it comes to this, remember?”
“Fine,” he sighed. “I can already tell you, I don’t need powers or alcohol to get people in here to feed me.”
“I believe you,” I said. “While you do that, any idea how I use the power around here to charge me?”
He grinned. “It’s a karaoke bar, isn’t it? You know your strengths, go use them. Just imagine energy flowing into you as you do. You already did it once tonight.”
“Stay in touch,” I said, tucking my phone into my bra. “And I’ll meet you back in here in an hour?”
He grinned. “You’re always welcome to join.”
“You already said I’m off limits while you’re helping me.”
“Yes, to me, doesn’t mean you can’t play with a toy or two I bring in. We already know Quil doesn’t mind.”
I shook my head. “We’re tryin’ monogamy, so thank you, but no. Besides, whatever you do, I’m pretty sure would give me nightmares too.”
###
Carvi was right.
I did draw energy from a crowd.
I took the time to get a meat ‘n three of pulled pork and some really good sides, especially for bar food, and two mint juleps, and to get up and sing. There was a long waitin’ list so I only got up once, but just being around all this was enough to make me feel juiced and ready to go.
Of course, that could’ve just been the booze talkin’.
I was definitely my mama’s daughter. I turned alcohol into magic.
“Hey!” I knocked on the office door an hour later, focusing my ears to drown out the singing and the roar of hundreds of humans crowded into a small bar.
I didn’t hear anything inside.
“Carvi!” I called.
A moan answered me.
I blushed and shook my head.
We were in a hurry, so I hated to use the hour to rebuild, but others were on dealing with the tulpa and fixing the men, and Carvi was right, if we were gonna do something as dangerous as wade deeper into the astral plane, we had to be charged up.
And for him, sex was like plugging the battery into the wall.
I walked down to the door in the back marked exit and with another employees’ only sign.
I went out the door into the alley and nudged a chunk of wood with my foot between the door and the jamb to keep the heavy thing open just in case it locked behind me.
I called Mender to check in. I’d already told her we were taking a break to recharge before going into the astral plane and she said they already had a few witches lined up to help with the men, a few coming in from out of town, and the one Quil was watching had woken up and once she heard Carvi’s name, she immediately agreed to jump ship and join our team in all this because, quote, “I’m not going up against that bastard.”
Somehow that made me believe her when she said she’d help. Hired guns usually wouldn’t betray their employers just for more money because it was bad for business, but scared ones would do it in a heartbeat over someone like Carvi.
As much as I liked him, and how good he was to me when he wanted to be, there was no doubt in my mind that Carvi was one of the most dangerous creatures on this planet.
I wouldn’t want to be on his bad side either.
Actually, I’d offered him five favors to specifically keep from being on his bad side while keeping some semblance of my freedom.
“What about Edmund’s ex?” I asked.
“We found a likely one and Dan got a hold of her. She’s up in Vermont, and she remembers him and is pissed at even being reminded of him. There’s a lot of anger there.”
“Meaning even if she came down to town to do this, it wasn’t her,” I said.
“I was just thinking based on how Dan said the call went that she may have. Why do you think she didn’t?”
“Because you just said there’s a lot of anger and she was mad at being reminded and all that, whoever did this cut out that part of themselves. They may not even remember the actual event. Or at the most would have a fuzzy memory and not really strong feelings about it, because that’s what was taken out. Does that make sense?”
“Unfortunately,” Mender said. “She also was pissed when we asked if she lost it to him and she finally said of course she wasn’t a virgin at that age, but that didn’t make him using her okay. Dan was thinking she might have been lying about that.”
“Nope,” I said. “She’d say yes if she was, because that makes it worse. She’s mad about it, and she wants sympathy.”
Mender sighed. “So we’re looking for someone who has this past, and maybe doesn’t even remember it, and isn’t angry about it anymore, so interviewing people looking for that was a waste.”
“No, ma’am,” I said. “We figured all this out because of interviewin’ people, and we got AB and her idea of how to get them back. That’s huge! We got a lot out of all this.”
“There’s that famous optimism,” she said. “Can you and Carvi take backup into the astral plane with you?”
I thought about that for a second. “We could take someone magical like Quil, but I really want him watching that assassin and doin’ his spells over there with the guys. If we had a witch who could do that, it’d be helpful, but I already know Sierra can’t because I’ve asked, and any witches we bring in who could, we kinda need on the guys anyway. So, I don’t think so.”
“How dangerous is this?” she asked.
I glanced over my shoulder at the door, the noise from the club leaking out through the crack, and the noise from the street echoing down the alley, but not so bad that I couldn’t hear the phone.
“I don’t know,” I said. “Last time we went deep into the astral plane, it was bad cuz there were Fae waitin’ for us. Without that, I think it’s just the danger of getting lost, and Carvi’s pretty good at this kinda stuff, so I think I’m fairly safe with him. I think.”
“I don’t like the sound of any of this.”
“I know,” I said. “But we don’t really have another way of figuring out where this all got started. I mean, on those first levels of the astral plane, we couldn’t even see it there, and that means I won’t be able to through visions. We have to go in deep to pick up this trail. At least, that’s how I think it works based on Carvi’s explanation.”
/> “And there’s no way for me or any of the guys to go in with you?”
“Not unless you have magic, and it has to be the kind that works with the astral plane.”
“God, Ryder,” she sighed, “having you on my team is going to be difficult. I don’t like sending someone in without backup like this. Even with Carvi.”
My heart twinged and I shoved it down.
Her team. I was on her team now.
“I think I’m more like his backup, but yeah,” I said, “I get what you mean. If this was us tracking someone in real life, we’d have at least four on it. I know. I just don’t know what else to do.”
“Me either. You update me the second you get out of there, Ryder. Any idea of a timeline?”
“Time moves slower in there, so even if it takes us awhile to track this thing, it won’t be that long out here. You should worry if you haven’t heard from me in about half an hour,” I said. “We’re doing this from the manager’s office at the karaoke bar. Did I give you the name?”
“Yes,” she said.
“Okay, good. Carvi already paid off the assistant manager to let us use the office and to watch our bodies. Apparently she’s into the occult and knows about magic and stuff so she was all over it… and Carvi, so there’s also that.”
“Do I want to know?”
“He’s recharging.”
“Life has gotten weird, Ryder.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“I’m sending Menard there right now to watch your bodies. He should be there in about ten minutes. If you are not awake in thirty minutes, he’s under strict orders to bring you both back to the office.”
“Well,” I said.
Was it my place to argue with the boss?
When it came to magical stuff, probably.
I knew more about this area than she did.
Wow, that was a weird feeling.
“No, ma’am,” I said.
Yep, way weird.
“We both get energy from the crowds,” I said, “from the dancing and drinking and partying. If we’re out of it and need help gettin’ back, being in the middle of that will surely help more than not. If we aren’t back by then, I’d say send a witch… or call up Carolyn and ask her if she wouldn’t mind jumpstarting both of us like she did with Carvi earlier.
