“Because he’s more afraid of you than you realize.” He coughed. A nasty, phlegmy sound. “The truth is you’re more valuable to me as a Wraith, not as a Shade, which is what you’d become if your body died while you were out of it.”
Hrm. School time. Care to explain that to me?
Rai checked his wrist. I didn’t see a watch, so I was assuming it was an old habit he’d gotten from when he was alive. “We don’t have time. Your police friend has arrived and will be engaging the Archer in just a few minutes.” He looked at me as I stood really fast. “Though Detective Frasier is in good shape, I’m afraid he’s no match for a Symbiont.”
Daniel’s here? Where at? Why? Where’s Susan?
With another shuddering cough, the gnome pushed himself up from the chair. His shoulders rolled forward. You’d think he’d aged twenty years in a few seconds. “The detective had become an irritant, and my master believed by leaving you here, unguarded, the Archer would emerge. By making an anonymous phone call to the police with a mention of seeing an unconscious female being trundled into this building, he also believed the good detective would join the party as well.”
Damnit. And I figured the expected outcome was believed Trench-Coat would take me as well as kill Daniel. All in one fell swoop. I glared at Rai. They’re still making the exchange, the documents for the girl, somewhere else. That’s where Susan is.
Rai nodded. “She will not survive. She’s the prize, the vessel in which the Symbiont will hide.”
I blinked. Come again?
He shook his head. “No time. You must go.”
But what do you want in all of this? Why be nice to me?
“I’ll be there when you need me, and when you find the power, when you ignite the full potential of the Wraith against the Archer, then I’ll give you the secret to defeating him, though you might find it’s not truly what you want. And then.” There was that smile again. Yuck—yuck. “You will destroy me.”
And he was gone. Not even a puff of smoke. Just pop.
Riddles and innuendo. Fuck ‘em all. I was getting just damned tired of no one giving me a straight answer. Ignite the Wraith? What. The. Hell? But no matter—he said Daniel was here, and I needed to stop him before he tried to take on Trench-Coat. It was me the Symbiont was after.
Or rather, pieces of me.
Why was it at that moment I felt more like Captain Hook and Trenchy was the Crocodile after the rest of me?
Gunshots again, then a shout.
Fuck! That was Daniel.
And I knew—I just knew—Trench-Coat and my cop had met. And the two weren’t dancing.
31
THE office let out into a boardroom. Floor-to-ceiling windows gave me a spectacular view of the Atlanta skyline. The sunset over the IBM Tower splashed the scene with brilliant yellows, indigos, blues, azures, and subdued reds. Happy Thanksgiving!
A long, oval table with about a dozen high-backed chairs took up most of the room’s center. The room smelled of artificial air freshener, Hawaiian scent if I wasn’t mistaken. And it was cold, as if the building’s heater was turned off. I padded around it on top of soft, sink-into-it carpet with the realization I was barefoot, in a green kimono, with my hair billowing out around me.
I’m sure I looked scary as hell.
I found an elevator at the other end of the room but wasn’t sure which way to go. Up? Down? What floor were they on?
Would Trench-Coat sense me and come hither?
Gunshots again.
Up—definitely up.
I avoided the elevator and decided on the stairs to the right. Figured I’d make better progress on my own power and not the building’s. The drawback was the stairs were ice-cold on my bare feet.
Yow!
Luckily there were only two flights, which meant up was the roof. They were on the roof?
The door wouldn’t open at first even though the knob turned several times. I threw my weight against it twice before it gave.
Icy air greeted me as I exploded outward onto the asphalt and rocks of the building’s roof. The momentum I’d used to get through the door carried me onto my knees. Fire burned through both of them as my unprotected skin scraped against the asphalt.
The sounds of fighting caught my attention. I looked to my right to see Daniel and Trench-Coat exchanging blows. Real, physical blows.
And from where I half sat, Trench-Coat looked about as whacked as Daniel did. They both bled from various cuts on their faces. Even as I stood I watched my cute cop deliver a well-aimed roundhouse kick to Trench-Coat’s side.
But Trench-Coat grabbed Daniel’s leg and, with a grunt, twisted the detective to the right. Daniel sort of spun a bit and went down on his side.
Daniel!
“Well, well, well.” Trench-Coat spoke in an all-too-familiar gravelly voice as he wiped the blood from his lip with the back of his wrist. “It’s so nice for them to leave me dinner.” He looked at me. “And dessert. Hello, Zoë.”
The way he said my name, in my voice, plucked at the strings of my spinal cord. The way he drawled out the e sound had an odd effect on me, much the way a light touch along my naked thigh would.
Ack. Yuck. Stop it.
I took a step forward. Don’t you dare hurt him. I didn’t know if he could hear me the way Rai had. Either way, with no voice, I was sort of stuck thinking my threats.
He grinned beneath his black shades. “Oh, I wouldn’t dream of it. As long as you do as I say. I’ve been waiting on you. Playing with my toy.” He glanced at Daniel, who was grunting in a moany sort of way as he got to his knees. Trench-Coat held his right hand, his index finger wiggling at me. “Come to me, and I let the little man live. Relatively.”
I didn’t believe him, not for a minute. But I wasn’t sure what sort of choices I had. Oh, I knew some martial arts. I wasn’t a black belt. But somehow I wasn’t sure if any of my training would be effective.
But other than that, I really didn’t have any superpowers to speak of. I didn’t own a gun, and I’m sure Daniel’d already fired on the spook with no luck. I didn’t have pepper spray, or even Mace. Ooh. Go me. Fearless Wraith.
I saw Trench-Coat hesitate.
Wraith.
There it was again, only not as physical. He could obviously hear my thoughts, just as Rai could. So—why did my thinking of myself as a Wraith bother him?
Unless he was afraid of me. Just as Rai had said Hirokumi was.
Trench-Coat laughed. Daniel was almost on his feet. And the two were pretty close to the roof’s edge. The brittle wind whipped my hair about my head, and I shivered violently. My toes were little ice cubes on the sticks of my feet, and it felt as if my kneecaps had slid down my shins.
Hrm. Maybe being a Wraith would feel better?
But then, where would I put my body?
Trench-Coat made a tsk-tsk noise. “So hard, having flesh, isn’t it?” He turned just as Daniel stood and hammered a fist into the detective’s midsection. Daniel bent over with a loud noise, and I watched his glasses fall away to the asphalt.
“Don’t become the Wraith, Zoë.”
Or what?
“Or this.” And he turned and lunged at Daniel, planting both of his hands against the detective’s middle. Daniel teetered over the edge.
I screamed silently and ran at the edge, my arms out to catch Daniel as he fell. But I missed him as he went over the side.
And Trench-Coat grabbed at my right, outstretched hand and yanked me to him. I used the momentum from his motion and brought my left knee up into his side, using my powerhouse (that’s the torso, solar plexus, and hips) as the nexus of my body twisted.
Hell, if he was physical enough to hit Daniel and grab me, then he was solid enough for me to have done a little damage too.
Daniel!
Trench-Coat actually gave an “ooof,” and I didn’t waste a breath as I pulled my wrist free, spun to my right and came down with a full fist on the back of his neck.
When he went to
his knees, I took a chance to look over the edge—not that I really wanted to see Daniel’s body splattered all over the parking lot below—but I had to know whether to get mad.
Or to get even.
Since I hadn’t arrived in the building by walking up to it, or in through the front door, I didn’t really know where I was or how high I was. Daniel could have fallen sixty feet—or sixty inches.
No luck. We appeared to be up several floors—five at the most. But Daniel had landed on a fire escape just below where I stood. It didn’t look like a very comfortable position. I was sure his leg was broken, or even more than that. He lay at an odd angle.
And he wasn’t moving.
A hand yanked me backward by my hair. I lost my footing and stumbled just as Trench-Coat’s arm snaked around my neck. The enemy was back up and in the game as he bent me forward and pulled me into his side. He had me in a nuggy position.
Yippee.
Mental note: do not turn one’s back on a Symbiont. Especially one wearing Vin Diesel’s face.
I stared at his boot and noticed I could see the asphalt through it. What’s this? Was Trench-Coat not fully in control of his corporeal ability? I was able to reach down and run my fingers through the boot and touch the roughness of the roof before he yanked me up into a standing position.
He wasn’t fully manifested. So—how did I use this to my advantage before he literally sucked up something else out of me?
I could go Wraith, then go solid and mess with him from behind. But then he’d probably just toss my body over the edge, and I wouldn’t be as lucky as Daniel and land on the fire escape.
In martial arts we’re taught to use the attacker’s offenses against them. Look at their strengths and turn them backward. Well, old TC here had me around the neck with his left hand—so where was his right?
Too soon I found out as it came around and he cupped my chin in his palm. I grabbed at his hands and tried prying them away as he pulled me to his front and leaned in to kiss me.
Over my dead body! Ooh. Bad idea.
I have an uncle, on my mother’s side, Uncle Chester, who loves to press his tongue into my mouth when he kisses me. Guy’s got to be nearing a hundred years old. I used to complain to Mom about it, and she finally just shrugged, and said, “Tell him you don’t like it.”
Well, that’d never worked.
So, next time he did it, I took matters into my own hands. I figured if he didn’t hear me when I expressed my discomfort, perhaps he’d listen when I showed him.
So I bit him. Hard enough to draw blood.
I thought of Uncle Chester at that moment as I felt the tips of Trench-Coat’s tentacled tongue press at my lips.
I thought of Rollins so close in my face.
So I bit it.
In fact, I bit it so hard, I bit the tip of it off.
I knew I’d done it the moment he let go of me and screamed. My voice screaming—not a pleasant sound even when it was from me, the rightful owner. I stumbled away and spit hard. Foul! Yeck! I spit again and nearly gagged at the thought of any of Trench-Coat’s tongue in my mouth.
I managed to move to the ledge and watched as Trenchy started doing the pee-pee dance. What? Had it been his penis I’d bitten instead? Was I so out of it not to realize I’d been at his crotch and not his mouth.
No, that’d been his tongue. Ew. Were the two related?
I was happy to realize I felt none of the erotic quality I had earlier when I thought of the bastard. No—I just wanted him dead and gone so I could rescue a little girl and get my cop to the hospital.
Trench-Coat reared his head back and screamed. The sound carried up and out in waves. It vibrated the building. Even the wind in the evening air gusted in response. Damned eerie.
Well, while he was having a hissy fit, I climbed down the reverse-U-shaped fire escape ladder to check on Daniel. Clouds billowed out from all sides of the city. I glanced at it briefly, but was more concerned for Daniel.
He lay on his side, his head turned away from me. He bled from his mouth, his head, and a few other places. I checked his pulse. Alive. Faint. He needed medical attention. What if there were internal injuries?
Just then the metal of the fire escape groaned, and the whole landing lurched to the right. I grabbed the sides as it moved again, and leaned to the right.
Daniel’s prone body rolled away, and I reached out with a hand and caught his suit jacket, preventing him from rolling farther. What was happening? Was our combined weight too much for the damned thing that it chose now to pull away from the wall?
I heard a laugh and looked up. Trench-Coat sat on the roof’s edge, his large, booted feet dangling over. He waved at me and smiled. White teeth. Blood dribbled over his lips, and I assumed it was from his damaged tongue. He widened his eyes and the fire escape lurched again.
The angle we tilted at took away the leverage I had in keeping Daniel’s body still. His legs moved and dangled off the fire escape’s edge as it teetered forward and threatened to dump us both onto the parking lot below.
I’d become the pin between the two beams, what kept it together. I had Daniel in one hand, and the fire escape’s main support in the other. The prone man’s body was heavier than what I was accustomed to holding.
My own grip on the metal was weak, precarious. And Daniel was slipping out of my grasp. If he fell, if I let go, he’d die for sure when he hit that pavement.
And me? What would happen to me?
“I would save you,” Trench-Coat said from above. “I have plans for you, Wraith.”
How was he still talking with a damaged tongue?
Plans. I still had the taste of his tongue in my mouth as I took in a deep breath. What do I do? If I stepped out of my body, both Daniel and I would fall. And what then? What could I do against Trench-Coat?
“You can destroy him,” Rai’s voice whispered in my ear. I nearly jumped out of my skin but I kept my hold, gritting my teeth as the cold wind whipped my hair all over my face.
How? I grunted.
“Let your lover die.”
What? I frowned, glanced around. I didn’t see Rai anywhere, but I heard him. I’m not going to let Daniel die.
“You have to. Your lover’s release will give you, as a Wraith, enough rage and power to destroy him.”
But how? I didn’t see it. If I let him die, then the skull was indeed the signal I feared it would be. I—I didn’t know what my feelings were—but I cared. Deeply. And wanted him with me.
“Wraith—if you release your lover, you gain a part of him. Use it. Channel it. The anger. Look what the creature has done to you. To your life. To your lover.”
I didn’t need prodding to be angry—I was so pissed off I felt the tears run down my cheek. Let him go? It would be easy. And he’d strike the pavement.
Just let him go. Destroy the evil behind me. Free him.
I looked at Daniel’s calm face, his closed eyes. I looked at the blood on his forehead, on his lips. It was my fault—a trap for me that lured him here, where he would die.
“Release him!” Rai’s voice was insistent in my ear as I also heard Trench-Coat laugh above me. Mocking me.
Release him.
And I did.
If only he hadn’t have opened his eyes and looked at me as I let go.
I watched him watch me as he fell away and I screamed, and screamed and screamed.
Blood.
Laughter from above.
I scrambled, shaking, down the steps of the leaning fire escape. I moved slowly, as carefully as I could, until I could jump the rest of the way. Daniel lay on his stomach, his head turned away from me. His eyes were closed.
I felt a presence beside me, begging me to release him. I thought of the euphoria I’d experienced before—of the surge of power. Sobs racked my body, and I collapsed on the ground beside him.
I stepped out of my body and faced what I believed was the Shade of my lover. I’d expected him to look so much like himself, just as
I looked like me when I went OOB. He was shadowy instead, not even as coherent as a Shade, and maybe that was because of the nature of his death.
His body lay broken, but he was still anchored. Somehow.
I had to release him, to gain the power, to destroy his murderer. I reached out in my incorporeal state and touched him.
“No! That’s not—”
I heard the voice just as the power exploded inside of me. A whirlwind of joy! Of happiness!
Was it mine? Or was it Daniel’s?
And there was a whisper as the lights of forgiveness enveloped me. So close to my cheek. A caress, a kiss. “Thank you.”
And that was it. No more words. Nothing except the overwhelming madness of sorrow. I felt I had wings as I looked up at the roof’s edge and saw Trench-Coat, a burning, red light like a pulsing, raging fire.
And I was there to quench it.
“You’re mine!” I heard him shout from above.
And I shouted back. I screamed at him for what he’d done to Daniel, to me, to Tanaka. I felt myself lifted into the air to the level of the roof. Into the wind I screamed. The air before me shook and vibrated as if it were a summer heat rising from steaming pavement.
I watched as it moved like waves out and up and bowled into Trench-Coat. He fell back onto the roof and writhed, his corporeal skin turning a bright pink and then red. He screamed and screamed, until there was a brief instance of silence.
And he imploded.
No great shower of ethereal goo. No ectoplasm. Just a simple pop, and nothing.
I stared at the empty roof for several heartbeats before I realized I really was in the air. I didn’t have wings, but I wasn’t on the ground. I wasn’t really myself either. I looked down at myself and saw…
Something else.
Something not entirely human.
Oh dear. Was this what Mom and Rhonda saw that day in the hospital?
I eased back to the ground as the sound of sirens filled the void left by Trench-Coat’s screams. My body lay to the right of Daniel. We were face-to-face, like some tribute to the death scene of Romeo and Juliet.
Wraith Page 34
