by Karen Duvall
Part of me was concerned about this kid, but another part saw him as a threat. If Zee’s possessing him helped me get away, I could always find a way to save him later. She wouldn’t kill him, and I doubt she could even if she wanted to. But she could mess up his life pretty good. Sociopaths were like that.
Zee’s ghost drifted toward Evan.
I stared, mesmerized. “Do you see that?”
Evan frowned. “See what?”
The ghost enveloped him like a melting marshmallow, folding around him before seeping in through his pores. He looked stunned, his mouth agape and his eyes so wide that only the whites of them showed. He jerked a few times, then his face went slack. I could see the ghost pulsing around him, its transparent mass larger than the kid’s body. Zee squatted inside him like a toad.
Evan stood unmoving so I figured it was a good time to hop down to the basement and look for the changing charm. Evan-Zee would scram out of here the second she figured out how to move his legs. I’d find them later and do whatever I needed to set Evan free with a lesson learned: the dark arts are called dark for a reason. School, friends and sports should be his priority at this stage of his life. Dabbling was for grown-ups.
I was preparing to leap down into the dark hole of the basement when a fireball hit me in the back and exploded. Sparks flew and my hair got singed, but some reflex part of Rusty’s power warded off the brunt of it. I whirled around to face Evan-Zee, who had another flaming orb cocked to launch.
“Damn it, Zee. There’s nothing here for you. Get the hell out.” My hands sizzled with the flames sprouting from my fingertips. “I’m warning you.”
“Aw,” she said, pursing Evan’s lips in a pout. “Are you mad?”
I glared at her.
She giggled. “Come off it, Chalice. You won’t hurt this kid.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Oh, yes, I do. I know what a sentimental idiot you are.” She tossed the fireball in the air and caught it with her other hand. “I’m not as blind as Gavin. He had a soft spot for you just like he had for your mother.”
Hold on. What the hell? She was trying to rattle my cage and did a darn good job of it, too. I blinked and hardened my eyes. I don’t think she knew Gavin was dead. “Bullshit.”
She cooked up two more fireballs and tossed them up with the first to juggle all three like a pro. “I don’t want to argue with you, missy.” The flaming orbs melded together, growing to the size of a basketball. “I just want to kill you.”
Evan-Zee threw the ball at me and I raised my hands to catch it between my palms. “Missed.”
Evan’s eyes glowed with fire and I wondered if he was even aware of what Zee was making his body do. “That’s new.”
I shrugged. “Yep. A lot’s happened since you died.”
Fire flamed from Evan’s mouth when Zee said, “I’m not dead anymore.”
I rolled my eyes. “Just because you stole a body doesn’t mean you’re not dead.”
“Is that what you think?”
Zee’s shadow didn’t realize what it was. “You’re too weak to hold on to this kid for long, so make the most of the time you have.” I waved toward the front door. “Go out, have fun, get drunk and do whatever you did while you were alive.”
Evan-Zee appeared conflicted for the first time. His eyes reflected doubt as they rolled in their sockets and took a fleeting glance at freedom. His chin dipped to rest against his chest. Maybe Zee had given up and decided to leave Evan’s body, but then I saw the massive shape of Zee’s ghost holding on. She wasn’t going anywhere.
Blue flames shot out of Evan’s mouth and melted the iron sconce on the wall. This was no ordinary fire. It was demon’s breath, hot enough to turn solid rock to ash.
I seriously doubted the ability I’d acquired from Rusty was a match for a demonic inferno. I was a goner.
If I could make it down to the basement and stand at the center of the pentagram painted on the floor down there, I might be safe. I leaped toward the hole and flames from Evan’s mouth caught the heels of my boots and set them on fire. I’m lucky Evan-Zee hadn’t torched my entire leg.
I fell, bending my knees to take the shock of impact on landing. The distance was far enough that I could easily break an ankle if I wasn’t careful. About halfway down something with furry paws and arms caught me in midair. I struggled to break loose of whatever it was, vaguely aware that its wings beat the air to hold us aloft. Then I smelled him. It was Aydin.
I looked up at the opening in the ceiling, then at him, and he nodded. He knew what was going on and had probably been watching the entire time. Aydin was a better thief than me, and invisibility didn’t hurt his skills of deception, either.
He gently flew us upward and used his body as a shield against the demon fire that flamed from Evan’s mouth.
Aydin set me down on the floor, then turned to face our attacker and roared. It was the most god-awful, frightening sound I’d ever heard in my life. Not even Shui had sounded so terrifying.
Evan-Zee closed his mouth and backed up, eyes bulging. Aydin lunged forward in a feint attack, stopping with his open maw inches from Evan-Zee’s face. His upper fangs were long enough to curl just below his lower jaw, and his tongue whipped out like a snake’s as if tasting the air. He sniffed, his wide nostrils flaring, and saliva dripped from his mouth.
Evan-Zee screamed and dropped, unconscious, to the floor.
eighteen
I STOOD STARING DOWN AT THE UNCONSCIOUS Evan and looked for Zee, hoping she’d been scared out of Evan’s body. No such luck. The plump specter curled around him, clinging with desperation. I think its survival instinct was stronger than whatever good sense it had.
Aydin wheeled around, his feline face set in a ferocious snarl. My heart jumped when I imagined him as the savage he pretended to be. He did pretend, right? His features relaxed and his jade eyes softened with a natural calm better suited to who he really was. My shoulders slumped as my tension melted away.
I watched him fade to his invisible form, and he took a step toward me. Nodding to let him know I was ready, I leaned forward and his body merged with mine.
The boy is possessed, Aydin said. And Zee has no intention of leaving him without a fight.
Not news to me. Then let’s fight her.
The human Aydin I saw in my mind’s eye shook his head. Zee was a witch and her hooks are in deep. I’ve never exorcised a ghost, but I know someone who can.
I hadn’t met many exorcists during my thieving years, mainly because the Vyantara made it a point to exterminate every exorcist they found. Demon and ghost possession was good business for them. It was another way for them to control their enemies.
I don’t like this kid, but I like Zee even less, I told him. Besides, Evan doesn’t deserve this kind of consequence for being a dumbass. A spanking would work better.
He’d probably like that.
I smiled. You’re probably right.
I’ll fly the kid over to Gus Zenfieger’s place. He’ll pull Zee’s ghost out of him and I’ll get inside Evan’s head to make sure he won’t remember what happened.
You shouldn’t fly in public. Panic coiled in my gut. You’ll have to be solid to carry him and someone might see you. We can’t risk it.
We have no other choice. I’ll carry you, too.
Me? I was flooded with gruesome memories of Shui’s talons puncturing my sides as he flew me around. The sadistic gargoyle had done it for fun. He got a kick out of my pain. I know Aydin would never hurt me on purpose, but the thought of being carried by a flying gargoyle terrified me. What if he dropped me? What if he ran me into the side of a building?
I won’t leave you here alone. I can carry you both at the same time. Remember Shojin’s harness?
I did. Aydin had made Shojin a special harness to carry people without injuring them. He’d even used it on Quin. I remember.
I brought it with me, just in case.
But if you strap in Evan, how will
you carry me?
He grinned. On my back.
Better there than dragged underneath him. I nodded.
Your thoughts tell me you came here looking for one charm in particular, Aydin said.
The changing charm. Do you know of it?
Yes. He paused before adding, I’ve seen it.
It could make you human again.
Charms don’t work on me, remember?
We can at least give it a try. I was so desperate to have him back that I’d try just about anything. If we can’t recover Shojin’s heart, it can be our backup plan.
I sensed his stubborn resolve and though I knew he wouldn’t argue, I also knew he didn’t agree. As far as he was concerned, it would not work.
The charm could be in the basement safe, which is where I was headed when Evan-Zee melted my boots.
Aydin released a mental sigh. Stay here and I’ll check.
He withdrew from my mind and, still invisible, flew down the hole to the basement.
Evan lay unconscious, Zee along with him, and I suddenly remembered Duster. I ran to the pile of debris the boy had made when he fell, but he was gone. Smart kid. I hoped he’d been scared into going home and would be one less sewer rat to worry about.
Aydin flew up out of the hole and merged with me again.
The charm you want is still in the safe and appears unharmed, he said, though he didn’t sound happy about it.
It’s not for me, it’s for you.
He had no response to that. Saddle up. Time to go.
Wait, I said. We can’t leave without the changing charm. I’ll stay behind and crack the safe while you get Evan to the exorcist. Which would also save me from having to be his passenger.
The safe is welded shut from the blast and you’re not strong enough to pry it open, he said. I’ll do it, but not until after we get this boy to Gus’s place. The longer Zee’s shadow stays inside him, the harder it will be to get it out.
Aydin backed out of me, and when he materialized, I saw the harness strapped around his back and chest. It was brown like his fur so it blended right in. He looked like a skydiver without a parachute, not that he’d need one.
We dragged Evan outside to the alley, where the asphalt was packed solid with ice and snow. Once hooked in, Evan’s body hung forward like a sack of potatoes from Aydin’s chest. The kid had to weigh at least 170 pounds, but Aydin didn’t seem affected in the slightest. He motioned for me to hop on his back.
I sucked in a breath and jumped on, wrapping my legs tight as a vise around his waist. With one powerful flap of his wings we were airborne.
The freezing temperature had no effect on Aydin and our flight lasted only a few minutes. He landed us feather-softly behind one of the huge mansion-style homes in Denver’s prestigious Capitol Hill.
I slid off his back and asked, “Gus lives here?”
He nodded and headed for the back door, his awkward gargoyle gait making him appear crippled. Evan was still hooked into the harness so the boy’s feet dragged over the ground between Aydin’s legs as he walked.
“He knows about your…you know.” I spread my hands wide. “That you haven’t been yourself lately?”
Still facing away from me, Aydin angled his feline head in my direction and jerked his chin at the door. Whether or not Gus knew Aydin was a gargoyle didn’t seem to bother him. The alley behind the house was dark and all lights were off inside. I rang the bell.
Minutes later a porch light flicked on and the door creaked inward. Filling the doorway was an exceptionally tall man who had to stoop a bit just to peer out at us. His heavily lined face creased even more at seeing the sewer rat boy hanging like a rag doll from Aydin’s chest. Any normal person would have run away screaming, but not this guy.
He wore a long, old-fashioned nightshirt complete with a floppy cone-shaped hat on his head. He glowered at me from below a set of bushy gray eyebrows. “May I help you?”
“We need an exorcism,” I said.
He nodded. “Ghost, demon or elemental?”
Elemental? I didn’t think elemental spirits were into possession. “It’s a ghost.”
He nodded and looked at Aydin, who was about equal to him in height. “My friend, I heard about what happened to you. What a handsome gargoyle you make.” He stepped away from the door. “Come in, come in. All the heat is rushing out to melt the snow on my stoop.”
Aydin slouched down to keep from scraping his head on the door frame. He slumped inside, dragging his burden along with him.
“I’ve heard of you, too, young lady,” the old man said. “Chalice. You’re the first person I know of to have survived the gargoyle’s curse unchanged. Bravo.”
I grinned. “Thanks.”
He chuckled and walked through the kitchen, motioning for us to follow. He led us to a wood-paneled study that looked very much like an old-fashioned medical exam room circa 1800. It even had a nineteenth-century examining table with a hinged back that reclined and an elevated foot pedestal with stirrups on the side. I shuddered to think how stirrups were used in an exorcist’s line of work. Though an antique, the wood table shone like new and even the metal parts gleamed silver in the dim light of a hurricane lamp.
Gus helped me release Evan from the harness and then bodily picked the boy up as if he weighed little more than a child. The man had to have been seventy if he was a day, but he moved like a twenty-year-old. He placed Evan on the table and strapped him down.
“I’ve never met an exorcist before,” I told him.
He nodded. “We’re a rare breed these days.”
“Yeah, I know. It’s a shame that so many have…moved on.”
His head bobbed in agreement. He returned his focus to his patient. “When did the infestation occur?”
“Less than an hour ago.”
“Excellent,” he said before thrusting his hand into Evan’s chest.
I gasped, then noticed that he hadn’t broken the skin. Evan didn’t flinch and there was no blood, yet Gus’s hand vanished up to the wrist inside the boy’s fully clothed body. He appeared to feel around, a look of concentration on his face.
“I never knew this was how an exorcism is performed,” I said.
“Well, my methods are unorthodox.” He continued fishing inside the boy. “Most exorcists chant and use incense and wave dead animal parts around, but I prefer a more straightforward approach. Aha!”
He yanked his hand out of Evan and something that look like a gelatinous organ writhed around his fingers.
“That’s gross,” I said.
“It’s the ghost’s physical form when it takes a body,” he explained. “I imagine you’re used to seeing the vaporous humanoid shapes the ghost projects on this plane.”
“Well, yeah.”
“Now you know what they look like in the fourth dimension, their true home.”
“Home?”
“A number of energies exist in that dimension, but it’s also a place for shadows of souls that have passed on. The ghost projects its nonphysical body on the human plane, in the third dimension.”
Interesting. The fourth dimension is parallel to the third dimension we live in and can’t be seen under normal circumstances. I was no physicist, but the Arelim told me all the veils existed in the third dimension of another universe. The objects there could be seen, touched, heard and smelled, but anything in the fourth dimension was supposedly intangible. At least in theory. Scientists had yet to prove anything.
“How am I able to see that gooey lump?”
He grinned. “Because I’m holding it and I exist in both dimensions at the same time.”
“That’s impossible,” I said, staring at him more closely. I let down my visual shields to get a better look. He had no aura, so he was either dead or telling me the truth. He didn’t look dead.
“It’s not impossible if your mother was a sylph and your father was a necromancer.” He chuckled. “My odd combination of parentage made me this way, as well as giving me my u
nique talent for exorcism.”
“What will you do with her?” I asked.
“You know who this used to be?”
“A witch named Zee. Horrible woman when she was alive, and not much better now.”
“Ah, well, no worries. She won’t possess anyone else again.” He held the ghost up over his head and leaned back, unhinging his jaw so that it opened wide enough to fit a soccer ball in.
Oh, my God. He was going to eat it. “Wait!”
His mouth snapped shut and he gave me a startled look. “What’s wrong?”
“Um.” Every race and every species had its own culture and dietary needs. That didn’t mean I had to watch. “I’m sorry, but if you could put it away for later, I’d appreciate it. Watching you eat a ghost is like cannibalism to me.”
“Of course. Didn’t mean to offend.” He looked sheepish. “The spirits I exorcise are payment for my services, and they’re what I need to survive.”
“Understood.” I held up my hands. “No harm done.”
He chose an empty jar off a shelf and peeled Zee’s gloopy essence off his hand and dropped it inside. As soon as it left contact with him, it became a mass of vaporous smoke. He screwed the lid onto the jar and set it aside.
“How long have you been an exorcist?” I asked.
“Since I was two. I surprised both my parents by yanking out a ghost that had taken control of another child. No one knew he’d been possessed. That was…” He paused and scratched an ear. “One hundred and eighty-five years ago.”
Holy crap. “You’re a hundred and eighty-seven years old?”
“My mother is much older.” He returned his attention to Evan, who still lay unconscious. “The boy will be fine now. Is he family?”
I shuddered. “Hardly. Just a wannabe sorcerer in training.” I wasn’t sure how much I should share with this guy, who I didn’t even know. But he had done us a favor and seemed honest enough. At least Aydin knew him. “He leads a gang of teenage magic users and he’s been getting instructions from the Vyantara.”
