Vivienne got up and stretched. “Nope. You won’t do that either. The Protector that gets into the girl’s body will instruct her, and her body is a lot stronger than you are in Grandma’s. To top that off, killing Grandma puts you back at floating around and waiting again.”
She stood opposite him at the table. “Which brings me to my second point. You brought us all here for a reason. You already killed Lenzi, or Rose, or whoever she was to you . . .”
I looked over to find Alden balanced on the very edge of the coffin slab, knife clutched in his hand with his other in a fist. I hoped he knew her nonchalance was an act. He could feel her soul just as I could, so certainly the calm, uncaring outside was clarified by her controlled rage on the inside.
“And after killing her, you could have just disappeared again, but you didn’t. You want something, and you’ve set up this elaborate scene to get it.” She gestured to the table in front of her. “You’ve gone to a whole lot of unnecessary trouble, seeing as how you’ve already achieved your usual objective. You want something else, and I know what it is.”
A twisted grin stretched across Tibby’s face. “Do you, now?” Smith’s voice rumbled. “A fortune-teller like your grandmother, are you?”
She smiled. “Yep. You bet. Do you want me to tell your fortune?”
“Let me guess,” I said. “Smith dies.”
I was worried she would be mad that I’d interrupted, but she grinned at me instead. “Nah. That’s his past. I was going to read his future.”
“No.” His voice was loud and harsh. Then, it softened into the sickening cordial voice he used on us at first—the one that made every one of my nerve endings burn and tingle. “No, I believe I will tell you your fortunes first.” He gestured for Vivienne to sit, and she did.
“Now, um . . .” He closed his eyes and snapped his fingers. “Ah, yes. Rachel. Sweet Rachel. Please come sit next to me again.” He patted the bench with Tibby’s hand. “I would like a cigarette, please.” He held out his hand and waited while Rachel, shaking so hard it took her several tries, fished a pack of cigarettes out of her Windbreaker pocket. “Anyone mind if I smoke?” He looked right at me, and I almost vomited. “No? Excellent.”
Rachel held the pack out to him, and he stilled her hand and took a cigarette. “Do you have a lighter, dear?” He asked, holding the cigarette between his thumb and forefinger.
Shaking so hard she dropped the pack of cigarettes on the floor, Rachel dug in her pocket again and pulled out a lighter. Smith nodded as a cue, but her hands trembled too hard to even light it. Over and over again, she tried to make the lighter ignite, until she crumpled to her knees sobbing.
“No matter,” he said, snatching the lighter from her limp fingers.
“You,” he said, looking directly at me. “You do it.”
I kept my face placid and simply stared at him, focusing on not allowing my fear to show. My job was to protect the Speaker. Weakness would impede my ability to do my job.
His smile widened, and despite my best efforts to retain control, my terror welled. Images from my childhood filled my brain.
A jolt of concern and fear blasted from Vivienne. She knew what this was doing to me. At least she couldn’t actually read my emotions like I could hers.
He grasped the knife and pointed it at Tibby’s chest. “Come light this, or I kill the body I’m in,” he ordered. He raised an eyebrow. “What exactly are you afraid of, hmmm?”
He must have been spying on us all this time. He was using my past to weaken me, and for a moment it worked. For fleeting seconds I was that five-year-old boy Charles had found all those years ago. But I wasn’t that boy anymore. I was Protector 993.
“Go to hell,” I said.
Tibby’s eyes widened. I’d surprised Smith. “Undoubtedly, I will. Now light this, or I will drive this knife right through her feeble heart!”
It took everything in me to not grab the lighter and do as he asked, but Vivienne believed he wouldn’t hurt her grandmother, and so far, her instincts had been spot-on. “Kill her. I’m not lighting it.”
He laughed and lowered the knife, then leaned over the table, lighting the cigarette in the candle. He took a long draw, then exhaled through Tibby’s nose, making her look like a dragon . . . or my mom’s boyfriend.
Illuminated in the flickering candlelight, a plume of smoke rose to the pointed apex of the tiny mausoleum, causing a haunting burn in my nose and eyes.
He sat back and grinned. “There are demons within, and there are demons without. It takes one to know one, as they say.” He took a drag off the cigarette, still studying me, then exhaled slowly, the smoke swirling around the candle flame. “Only your demon is much harder to exorcise. Long after I’m gone, yours will remain.”
I knew what he was trying to do, and it wouldn’t work. Past was past. I stood and walked within a few feet of him. “Dwelling on the wrongs of the past is unhealthy. Like smoking.” I reached out and took the cigarette from Tibby’s mouth and extinguished it under my foot. “You should stop both.”
He raised Tibby’s eyebrows in surprise. Then he clapped. “Bravo.” He nodded his head toward Vivienne. “You might end up being worthy of her.” He leaned back against the wall. “I must admit that I’m a little disappointed, though. A breakdown would have been so much fun.”
“Sorry to disappoint,” I said, returning to my place on the cold coffin slab. Vivienne’s relief and approval wrapped around me like a blanket.
He gave a theatrical sigh. “Where was I? Ah, yes. Fortunes.”
He’d been possessing Tibby a long time. Probably two hours or more, which had to be wearing him down. I glanced at my watch to check.
Smith used that nerve-frying cordial voice. “Am I boring you?”
“Stop grandstanding and get on with it, Smith, because you’re boring me,” Vivienne said.
He turned his attention to Alden, whose eyes narrowed immediately. I worried about Alden’s self-control if pushed too hard. Though he was far more likely to hurt himself than Vivienne’s grandmother. “I will tell your fortune first, Protector 438, since you and I have known each other the longest.” He turned the center card over. “Ah. The Fool. So appropriate. Now that she’s dead, will you kill yourself to join her sooner, or will you simper and mourn and wait it out like usual?”
Alden remained completely unchanged and still as if he were frozen.
Smith shot a look at Vivienne, and she rolled her eyes. His brow furrowed.
He moved on to Race, who met his eyes directly. “This one is for you and your girlfriend across from you.” Maddi’s hand tightened around the knife she was holding. He took the card to the right of center and held it up for both of them to see. “The Lovers. Isn’t that sweet? Only you’re not anymore. You’ve been replaced, haven’t you, my dear?” he said, smiling at Maddi.
Anger and doubt weakened the soul. He was systematically trying to break us down to make his chances of success greater. Only, I wasn’t so sure at that point what he would consider success. He hadn’t made any move to possess Vivienne or destroy her, which was his usual MO.
Vivienne gave a long-suffering sigh, and Smith, through Tibby’s body, scowled. It was as if he sought her approval. As if he cared what she thought. Then she yawned.
“You next,” he said to Vivienne.
“Bring it, demon. Do your worst.” She smiled.
He flipped over the card and held it up with a triumphant grin. “Death,” he said. Rachel squeaked from where she huddled on the floor.
Vivienne stood and snatched the card from his hand. “You’re doing it wrong.”
He appeared disappointed. Like a child who had not gotten the correct flavor of ice cream.
“Just like everything you do, it’s all about show and not substance. A little research would have prevented this embarrassment.”
I expect
ed him to rage or growl, but he just watched her with a disappointed look on his face . . . well, Tibby’s face.
Vivienne picked up Alden’s card. “Here, let me tell you what these really mean.” She got on her knees within a few feet of Smith so they could look at the card together.
“Don’t get too close,” Race warned, turning his knife in his palm.
“Nah. He doesn’t want to kill me yet. He’s got something else in mind first. Don’t ya, demon?”
Tibby’s face simply showed confusion. I wondered if he had been weakened or was truly baffled by Vivienne. She was certainly disarming, all calm and didactic when Smith expected her to quake with fear like Rachel.
“So, here we go. I’ll start with Alden. You assigned him the Fool card. If the tarot cards are like numbers, Fool is zero. The Fool is where it all begins.” She looked right at Alden, and I knew she was telling us something important. “He is the spark that sets everything into motion.”
She moved to Race and Maddi’s card next. Smith appeared completely engrossed, caught up in her lesson. Perhaps he hadn’t communicated in so long, he was enjoying it. That or he was lulling us into complacency again. After his acting job in Mueller’s classroom, I wouldn’t put anything past him.
“The Lovers,” Vivienne said, holding the card up for him to see. “You used it to make a dig at the fact Race just got a new Speaker, huh? Trying to pit him and Maddi against each other, which indicates you’ve got something in mind for us later where that animosity would be useful.” Smith nodded, and Vivienne rewarded him with a smile. “It’s actually a good card for them. The Lovers card is about more than just the relationship between two people. It also addresses the necessity of proper choice. The card can tell us to consider all consequences before acting. To be on your toes.” She smiled at Maddi without acknowledging Race, and laid the card back on the table.
I was certain that ignoring Race meant she was addressing Maddi specifically. I assumed she wanted Alden to take the first open body and Maddi the second, but Maddi would have to choose something. Maybe when or even who.
Her emotions were still level, and I was in awe of how confident and calm she was, sitting so near the closest thing to the devil himself. The demon who had killed her aunt. And it hit me like a ton of bricks. If she could handle her fear and hate like this, so could I. I wouldn’t hide my past. I’d faced my demon and turned it away. The timing for an epiphany was terrible. I almost laughed. Wouldn’t it suck to finally realize I no longer had to hide my past just in time to die?
“Death,” she said, showing Smith the card. “It’s interesting you picked this one for me. You really might have been a decent tarot reader if you had learned how. But you could have been a lot of things if you had learned how, huh? Nobody ever really gave you a chance, did they?” She placed her hand over Tibby’s. “Rose never gave you a chance.”
Tibby’s eyes widened, and Smith shook her head almost imperceptibly.
Vivienne removed her hand and flicked the card with her fingers. “You were trying to freak me out by insinuating I was going to die, right? Well, that’s not what this card means at all.” She leaned even closer to Smith as if she were telling an important secret. “Death is transformation to the next level of life. It means my perspective has changed. An old attitude is no longer useful to me.” She dropped the card in his lap and moved to the center of the room. “Hate is no longer useful. I’m done with revenge, Smith.” She walked directly toward the door to leave.
“Stop!” he shouted, grabbing Rachel by the hair and pulling her against him, knife back at her throat. His hand shook, but it might have just been his anger. “I’m not done with revenge.”
Vivienne turned around and sighed. “Give it a rest.” She appeared totally calm, but her anxiety spiked at the sight of the helpless girl with the knife at her throat.
He smiled that sickening inhuman grin through Tibby. “Let’s make a deal.”
She shook her head. “I don’t deal with demons. You sneaky little devils never keep your end of the bargain.”
A glance around the space showed me that Maddi, Race, and Alden were all ready for whatever Smith pulled.
“It’s an offer you can’t refuse.” Smith folded Tibby’s hands innocently in her lap. “I’ll leave permanently and move on-‘Give up the ghost,’ as they say-if you meet my demands.”
Still in the center of the room, Vivienne put her hands on her hips. “Spill it, Smith.”
Smith fanned Tibby’s flushed face. She looked overheated, but it was chilly. “Everyone pick up your knives and stand, please.”
“I’m already thinking your deal sucks. Forget it.”
Rachel screamed and a thin trickle of blood dripped down her neck. “I’ll kill her, and you know it. Pick up your knives.” The voice wavered a little. Perhaps he was weakening.
Vivienne grabbed her knife from the coffin slab, and we stood in the center of the small space facing Smith in Tibby’s body.
He stretched her face in a sick smile, pleased we had obeyed and given over control. “Here is my offer. One person dies. Only one.”
My stomach dropped to my feet. The walls seemed to close in even tighter than they were in the confined space.
“One of you must kill someone else. I’ll even throw in a bonus. Grandma and Rachel are included.” Rachel sobbed, and he shoved her away. She landed on her knees on the dirt floor. “Anybody is fair game except for him.” He pointed at Alden. “He wants to die, so that would be no fun at all.” He winked at Alden. “You may kill someone, though, if you wish.”
The look Alden gave him made it more than clear who he wanted to kill if it were possible. Smith waved Tibby’s arms. “Discuss, discuss.”
We huddled in a circle while Rachel sobbed at Smith’s feet. Vivienne and I had our backs to Smith, with Maddi facing him and Race and Alden flanking her.
“Who’s it going to be?” Vivienne whispered just loud enough for Smith to hear over Rachel’s wails.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Maddi said in a regular voice. “Have you lost your mind?”
Vivienne narrowed her eyes, but her emotion didn’t flare at all as it would if she had really been challenged. “No. It sounds like a reasonable deal. We recycle. He’s gone forever. Win-win.”
“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” Maddi said.
Vivienne paced the floor—as much as she could in such a small space. I knew she was checking out Smith. When I turned to watch Vivienne, I noticed Smith breathing heavily, and there was more sweat. Tibby’s whole face was slick in the candlelight. Her eyes followed Vivienne’s movement, but she didn’t seem as alert. Vivienne paused in her pacing and winked at us. She began pacing again. “So, who’s it going to be? I’m the only Speaker, so I’m out. Alden’s out. I won’t let it be Paul, because I’m kind of partial to him, so that leaves Maddi and Race.”
Race had figured it out. Something was wrong with the body Smith was in. If we stalled long enough, Tibby would pass out, and he’d be forced to move to Vivienne or Rachel, which would take even more of his energy. “Well, I shouldn’t be sacrificed, because I’ve finally been assigned a Speaker so I won’t be the odd man out all the time.” He returned to his place on the coffin slab and crossed his arms. Alden sat next to him, glancing at Smith out of the corner of his eye.
Maddi had finally caught on too. “You’ll be odd no matter what, caveman. You’re not offing me. No way.” She sat down, clearing the center of the room for Vivienne, who no doubt would want to resolve him by having him possess her rather than let him escape. If he took off with any power at all, he’d be back.
I wanted to remain standing, but knew if I soul-shared, my body would fare better seated. Every fiber of my being focused on Vivienne and her feelings, which were a mixture of fear and excitement. We’d almost done it. Hopefully, she was strong enough to take him. He’d possessed Tibb
y for a long time. Much longer than the average Malevolent could hold on to a body with another soul in it, especially after expending a huge amount of energy on what he’d done to Lenzi. And then a horrible thought crossed my mind. What if he had forced Tibby’s soul out? He could use that body indefinitely.
Vivienne picked up a card from the table as Smith watched through droopy lids. She turned the Fool toward Alden, then flipped the card at him as if disgusted. Smith sat up straight in Tibby’s body as Vivienne grabbed Rachel by the arm and pulled her to stand in front of Alden. “Kill her. We all have too much value. She’s expendable.”
“I knew I liked you,” Smith said.
“No!” Rachel screamed. Vivienne tightened her grip around the girl’s rib cage to keep her from collapsing. My heart went out to Rachel. She had no idea what was going on, only that it was way beyond normal. She was living a nightmare that with any luck would have a happy ending for her.
“Do it now,” Vivienne said, shoving Rachel into Alden’s lap. The minute contact was made, Alden’s eyes glazed over and then Rachel screamed and kept screaming. “Get her to shut up,” Vivienne said, never taking her eyes off of Smith. “Shut her up, Alden.”
I jumped up and grabbed Rachel, moving her out of Smith’s reach. I covered her mouth and sent calming current through her while Alden talked to her from inside her body. Hopefully, she’d calm down soon. It was too risky for one of us to leave to take her outside—Smith might go for Vivienne.
“You tricked me,” Smith said, still seated. He didn’t seem surprised. That or his body was too weak to show it.
Vivienne shrugged. “When in Rome . . .”
He placed Tibby’s palm on her forehead. “What’s wrong with this body?”
“Diabetes,” Vivienne replied between Rachel’s screams. “Rachel. Be quiet or I’m going to have Paul knock you out.”
Her screams lessened to groans, and I turned my back to Smith. “I would never do that,” I whispered in her ear. “But you need to be quiet so we can help you.” She calmed a bit more, and I uncovered her mouth. She muttered something, probably in response to Alden talking to her from inside, and I turned back to face Smith.
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