Wraith

by Phaedra Weldon

  But it made Rollins’s—uh the thing’s—well Rollins’s words make sense. When he said he’d barter the girl he meant Susan Hirokumi for the contract, and when he said he’d barter me, it meant to appease the Archer. Trench-Coat.

  I was supposed to be Ethereal fodder.

  And to be honest, I wasn’t liking the way these two men were looking at me.

  “We will agree to Rollins’s offer to trade the contract for my daughter.” Hirokumi moved around to the back of his desk.

  Rai looked sad as he reached out and touched my arm. “I am sorry, my daughter. But the balance must be maintained. Pity—Wraiths are so rare these days. Most have been exorcised by the living to near extinction. Or hunted by rogue Symbionts for their souls.”

  What the hell? I turned to look Hirokumi. He looked upset. More so than when Tanaka died.

  So now they meant to offer me to Trench-Coat just as Rollins had?

  “No,” Rai said. “Once Rollins possesses his contract again, the Archer cannot take the soul and will not be allowed to destroy the body or the Symbiont. It is the Symbiont within Rollins that wishes the contract. But because he has your voice, the Archer cannot return either. So there is only one way to rid ourselves of such a powerful Symbiont.”

  I swallowed as I stood and backed away. I looked from Rai to Hirokumi.

  Hirokumi held a Glock in his hand, aimed at me. “Your death.”

  27

  I don’t know how many times in my life I’m going to wish I could go back to one particular Tuesday night and strangle the curiosity right out of myself. I might not really strangle myself, but I sure as hell would stop me from going into that freak’n building with a really good bitch-slap.

  Then I’d never have seen Trench-Coat kill Tanaka.

  I’d never have been attacked by some harpy spy spirit. And I’d still have my voice!

  But—I might never have met Lieutenant Frasier (not that much had been happening on the romantic front with the cute cop).

  I know I wouldn’t have found myself facing the wrong end of a Glock 9mm.

  Oh nooooo.

  I’d be shopping. Buying shoes. Trying on jeans. Drinking a mocha at Starbucks.

  Or even better—eating greasy, fake-butter-covered popcorn while I watched a movie in the dark, my only worry being which hip the butter was going to sit on.

  Now—as I faced my imminent death, I thought some serious thoughts.

  Of survival.

  I stared at the gun. If he shot me while I was Wraith/solid, what would happen to my body in the closet? Would the bullet pass through me if I became invisible in time? But then they’d know I wasn’t really here. If I became incorporeal right now, I might be able to move past Hirokumi, invisible, go corporeal again, and grab the gun.

  And then what? Shoot Hirokumi? Shoot wee Rai? And what about that smoking dragon?

  To my surprise the little gnome sidestepped to stand in front of me. If he hoped to protect me or deflect any bullets, I hated to tell the fucker I was still vulnerable from the boobs up.

  “No, Hirokumi. Her death will not release the Archer from this plane.”

  The businessman looked really upset, and the gun wavered. I ducked behind the gnome. Okay—call me chicken shit. But the guy was obviously unstable, what with the kidnapping of his daughter, and was willing to do anything to get her back. “Without her, he would have no reason to remain.”

  “He has tasted physical gifts. By taking the Wraith’s voice, he may now use it to influence the living. True, he will continue to pursue her until he possesses all of her. But if she dies, he will intercept her soul.”

  Wait—what? You mean that asshole would prevent me from going to Heaven?

  Or at least I was hoping I’d go to Heaven. After that incident with the little old lady and then with Mitsuri, I really wasn’t sure of anything at the moment.

  “Koba,” Rai said, and his voice was gentle. Soothing. “Susan will be all right—we will trade with the Reverend’s Symbiont, and she will be home. It will receive its own punishment for what it has done. What is more important is the destruction of the Phantasm’s charge.”

  I think it was at that moment, standing behind a little old Japanese man, that the epiphany of being in over my head finally came crashing down on top of my shoulders. There were things out there on the astral plane I’d never encountered before—not in my little realm of it.

  And somehow that had changed—my realm. It had gotten bigger, and I didn’t want it to. I was of the belief that if I could see it, it could see me.

  And I didn’t want to be seen. Not by things that I didn’t understand.

  At least yet.

  I got the feeling I was no longer a wee guppy in a vast sea. I was now a wee guppy with a honking-big neon sign in a vast sea. The message “Eat Me” could be seen for miles.

  Was it possible not to astral travel anymore? To not be a Wraith anymore?

  I somehow doubted it.

  It was like ice cream. One bite, and you were abruptly looking down at the end of the cone—or cup in my world. Not a big eater of crunchy sugar.

  Even when you get a taste of something you don’t really like—like pistachio or black walnut—you keep sneaking more bites until the whole pint (who’re we kidding—gallon) is gone.

  Hirokumi lowered the gun as well as his shoulders. He looked defeated, and I felt sorry for him.

  Well, only a little sorry. The asshole had pulled a gun on me. “What do you propose?”

  Rai nodded, and I was surprised to see the gnome’s shoulders relax as well. Ah—nice to know the omnipotent also panic. “We must arrange a meeting between Rollins and you to exchange Susan and the documents. The Archer will be nearby, watching. It is my guess Rollins had planned on trading Miss Martinique for his safety. Offering a starving man water.”

  I recalled Trench-Coat to mind. Starving? Hardly. But Rai was right—that was what old Teddy had had in mind. Not that I’d understood any of it at the time I’d been in his office.

  Rai spoke. “I propose we do the same—use Miss Martinique as bait to lure the Archer to us.”

  I looked down at the little troll’s shiny head. Excuse me? “But, Seer—that would be giving it the power to fully enter this physical world.”

  “Not if we trap it inside the mouth of the dragon.” He nodded to the statue still smoking on the desk. “The Symbiont is still largely a part of the spirit realm. He is as susceptible to capture as any other Abysmal or Ethereal creature.”

  I looked at the dragon statue and dismissed the idea of becoming invisible to escape. It sought out spiritlike beings. So I sort of suspected that if I went invisible, the thing would take a look at me and think, “Oohh, munchies and crunchies.”

  Either way—I figured I needed to get out of there before Hirokumi changed his mind.

  The big deal was how. If I just vanished out of sight, I’d blow my wad, and there was no way I’d get out of here in one piece with my body. I checked the little clock on Hirokumi’s desk. I’d been out of body for nearly an hour, but I’d been corporeal the whole time. So, what did that translate to time out? Two hours equal to not being visible?

  And there was the dragon. Argh. Why couldn’t this business be easier? Even better, why didn’t I just stay in Mom’s bed?

  I needed a diversion.

  Shouts from outside the doors.

  Ooh. Good diversion.

  But I wasn’t quick enough. Who knew there were guards in the room with us? I didn’t. But obviously there were hidden panels in the wood walls because before I could say “what the f—” there was a big man behind me. He grabbed me around my chest, pinning my arms to my sides, and clamped a hand over my mouth, smashing my lips into my teeth.

  Ow. What? He not get the memo either? Hello. No voice! The big guy—who smelled of Aqua Velva I might add—dragged me backward behind one of those real pretty screens.

  He released my mouth and I started to bite him, stomp his foot, you know—be th
at action heroine I loved in the movies—till something metal, solid and very much like the barrel of a gun, banged painfully against my lips and teeth.

  Ow. He had the gun…in my mouth.

  Now—here we go again with the fill-in-the-blank. If he shot me, while I was physical, would it hurt? And if it hurt, would it affect my physical body? I mean—would it suddenly go into death throes (bullet to the brain—I was assuming it’d be a death shot) and a bullet hole appear in my head? Would I abruptly snap back into my body?

  That would be bad.

  I think it was a great theory—but not one I wanted to test. So I stayed still in his burly arm, my head pinned to his chest with the gun.

  The doors slid open, and the yelling became clear—it sounded like what I imagined a harpy would sound like—if she were Japanese. Since I couldn’t see anything through the screen, I listened.

  I imagined it was the old kimono. Very unhappy.

  “Ahhh…Detective. What an alarming surprise.”

  Detective? Daniel? I started to struggle and big guy shoved the gun farther between my teeth. I quietly gagged.

  I promised myself I would get even with him.

  “Really? Not as alarming as the one I got when I saw your men carry a young woman out of that house. Where is she?” It was Daniel all right. It felt like ages since I’d heard his voice.

  “I’m sorry, Detective, but I have no idea of whom you speak. I’m afraid I must protest your intrusion into my private home. I’m sure Captain Cooper would be very unhappy to learn of your actions.”

  Uh-oh.

  “Koba—I was pulling surveillance outside of Rollins’s residence. I saw your men bring someone out of that house. Either it was your daughter, or it was Zoë. Where. Is. She?”

  My hero.

  But Daniel, for all his cute bravado, really had no idea what he was dealing with here. I know he believed I was here, and not Susan. And I was afraid he was going to get hurt if we didn’t get out of here. He wasn’t going to just leave, and he was the only way out for my body that I knew of.

  Need another diversion.

  I knew what I had to do, but wasn’t sure how quick I was going to be against smoky dragon. I had to try, right?

  Sometimes I’m not the brightest bulb in the sign.

  With a deep breath, and no clear idea of what I was doing, I closed my eyes and thought about being astral, like smoke.

  I slipped from my bully’s grip and moved away. Big guy gasped and lowered his arms, his gaze looking all over the place. I immediately turned and passed through the screen.

  Daniel was there, dressed in his usual suit and round glasses. He looked damned good—enough for me to jump right there.

  Wrong thoughts, wrong thoughts (notice I didn’t say bad). That roar you’re hearing isn’t your libido, child.

  It was the dragon awakening.

  Any second now that thing’s smoke was gonna take on the look of a Yu-Gi-Oh! monster and try to eat me.

  I moved to the other side of the desk—to the other screen—and hid behind it. I felt dizzy for a second as I thought of myself as physical, just like before.

  In fact, the dizzy feeling got worse before it got better. I was stunned and fell back against the wall behind the screen just as the dragon plunged through the screen at me—

  —and stopped, jaws wide. It snapped its jaws shut and blinked. The thing actually looked disappointed.

  Ha! Missed me. Neener-nee.

  Oh…but I felt awful. And I immediately thought maybe I’d overused my body battery. I needed to get back to it. I needed a watch. I needed—

  “Zoë?”

  I turned to see Daniel peering behind the screen, his gun drawn and held in both hands. I gave him a smile and nodded.

  “You look nice in that.” He reached out to me, and I took his hand. “You ready to go home?”

  Daniel pulled me from behind the screen with one hand on my shoulder and one still clutched around his gun. “Kidnapping, Hirokumi? But why Zoë? What is Zoë worth to Rollins? Why did he, and now you, kidnap her?”

  I could only imagine Daniel’s surprise to be spying on Rollins and see men in black pajamas sneaking me out of the house. I was surprised at Hirokumi’s apparent calm as he sat at his desk, his hands clasped on its surface. He’d just been caught with his hand in the cookie jar, and he looked pretty okay about it.

  Smug.

  I didn’t see Rai anywhere though. Maybe he was under the desk?

  Oh. Ew. Bad image. Nasty.

  Mental note: Wash mind out with soap.

  “I’ve warned you before, Lieutenant, things are not as they seem. You are meddling in a world far beyond your everyday good guy and bad guy.” Hirokumi smiled, but didn’t show any teeth. I was glad of that. I was beginning to think those teeth might be pointy and razor-sharp. “Those areas are now blurred gray.”

  Didn’t like the sound of that either.

  “Is that a threat, Koba?” Daniel sounded frazzled. Sort of like I used to when my day had just started at worse and got increasingly…uh, worse. “Your daughter is missing—and you kidnap a grown woman as a trade? What does Rollins have going that he’d want or need Miss Martinique? Is it because your former secretary tried to kill her?”

  I hated to tell Daniel that Hirokumi already knew Mitsuri was rotten, but we didn’t really have time to stand here and chitchat.

  Rather, I didn’t have time to stand here and chitchat. Not that I could really even chat about any chits. I wasn’t feeling oh-so-spiffy and needed to get back to my body.

  I already knew I was going to be hungry and thirsty. Really thirsty. That seemed to be the new side effect. I glanced at the nicely glowing white hair on my left shoulder. Besides that.

  Oh, and the tat.

  So, if I was any good at guessing symptoms with time spent OOB, I gave myself half an hour more in solid form and blammo. Back in the body I went whether I liked it or not.

  I could probably travel my silver cord right now and join Daniel in my real physical body, but my sudden disappearance would A, probably freak poor Danny-boy here out enough so that Koba’s men could capture him, and B, alert the disappointed dragon that I was back in munching form.

  No, we needed to get to my body or close enough so I could zip back in.

  Wow…a week ago I’d never considered just zipping back into my body. It was getting too easy. And I’d hate to be out in public and sneeze and poof! Out of body.

  Not good on dates to go all dead-like, then poof! Back in again. It’d give a whole new meaning to the old belief that Southern women swoon.

  Koba looked as disappointed as the dragon had. “I’m afraid things aren’t that simple, Lieutenant. Nor can I allow you to simply take such a prize from me.”

  Prize? Little old me? Wow—I felt so loved.

  “Prize? Zoë?” The incredulity in Daniel’s voice was palpable.

  And offensive. Hey buster, I’m one damn great prize.

  Daniel held his gun up higher, aimed at the businessman’s chest. “I’m not here alone. Cooper didn’t officially approve this little venture of mine, but he’s here nonetheless. And he can hear everything you’re saying.”

  I turned and looked at my hero. Cute, and wired! Loved it.

  I’m not sure Hirokumi believed him, but I do think that, as a businessman, he knew when not to gamble. “You may go, Daniel Frasier. And you may take…” The man smiled and looked directly at me. Oogy. “Whatever it is you have with you.”

  I don’t think the lieutenant got it—but I did. Hirokumi knew the only way I’d been able to get away from my captor behind the screen and arouse the dragon was to become a Wraith.

  He knew I was out of body. And what about Rai? Where was he?

  Daniel pulled at me then, and I gave Hirokumi a narrowed look. He merely bowed from his neck with a smug smile.

  I really hated smug. Did I mention that before?

  Cutie-cop wanted to go right, but I pulled him left. “Zoë, we have to
get out of here this way. My car’s parked by the road.”

  I shook my head and was insistent. I needed to get my body, and it was three turns and a hallway back this way.

  He wouldn’t let go of my wrist, so on a whim, and really not sure if it would work, I concentrated on just my wrist being invisible.

  It worked all right. I snapped to the left, and he nearly stumbled to the right. Righting myself, I motioned him to follow me.

  With a few choice words (my, my what language! Must take notes!) he did, and I moved a bit shakily back down the maze to the room where my body was stuffed in a closet.

  “Zoë…what did you leave in here?” Daniel said, as I slid the door to the room open.

  It was the same. The food tray had been removed and the bed straightened. Hopefully the help hadn’t opened the door and gotten a shock. I doubted they would—I mean—I didn’t have any clothes other than what was already on my back.

  I gave him the index finger of my right hand, indicating to wait one second as I moved to the closet and slid the door open.

  If I could have screamed, man, I would have. And probably pierced a few eardrums.

  Either way Daniel read my body’s reaction and came to my side. He definitely helped prop me up because I was about to give an old-fashioned swoon.

  He looked into the closet. “Was it that envelope you needed?” No! I wanted to shout. I had a body here! I left it here for safekeeping! Where the fuck was it?

  Daniel moved forward and bent down to grab the envelope that was there. It was addressed to me. “Let’s go before Hirokumi changes his mind, and we’re trapped here.” He grabbed my wrist again and dragged/pulled me from the room and back down the hall.

  I was looking down at my bellybutton area and trying really hard to find my cord.

  My first thoughts of course were centered on where my body was. Until I looked down at my bellybutton area to find my cord. That’s when I lost control and vanished, completely.

  28

  The Abysmal

  IF my body was my battery, then I had to believe it was still alive, and I was still attached. Somehow.