Wraith

by Phaedra Weldon

  Yet it was Hamlet that came to mind at that moment (I really didn’t know Romeo and Juliet—too sappy). I knelt beside Daniel, corporeal, spent, alone, in shock at what had just happened.

  “Good night, sweet prince, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.”

  It was nearly an hour later before I realized I’d spoken those words out loud.

  32

  WHEN the paramedics said they had a pulse, I lost it. Full-blown female PMS drama moment. Oh I even weirded out myself on this one.

  I had my voice back, and I was putting it to good use.

  Alive! He was alive! Never stopped to wonder how, or why. Or even if I was sure it was really Daniel fighting for his life inside that body, and not something else. I just knew it was him.

  So like any good EMT team would do, they threatened to sedate the crazed, wild-haired chick in the ragged green kimono. I agreed to succumb to tests to make sure I was okay as long as they kept me informed on Daniel’s condition. The nicer of the two ambulance men said Daniel had a concussion, possible broken neck, fractured leg and wrist, as well as internal injuries.

  He was in bad shape. But the doctors had him, and Captain Cooper was there. I avoided him, not wanting to risk his anger and have him sic officers on me. In his version of things, I was a witness. I had to go.

  I had to finish the job Daniel and I started. There were bad men, and some bad things out there, and I had to rescue Tim, and Susan, and set things right.

  Daniel would want it that way.

  It was close to one in the morning, the day after Thanksgiving, when Mom and I arrived at Rollins’s house. It looked cold outside. I could just see sleet against the Volvo’s headlights, and the automated computer guidance system reported the temperature at 1.67 Celsius.

  I figured that was really cold in Fahrenheit.

  It wasn’t unheard of to be that cold in November in Atlanta, it just wasn’t normal. But then, nothing about the past two weeks had been normal.

  I’d assumed that the Reverend had vacated the estate after Hirokumi’s little raid that night and hidden himself away in some secret location. So of course there wasn’t supposed to be anyone home, right?

  So it should be deserted?

  Sure it looked deserted, except for the three white limousines in the front drive, the copious lights on from inside, and well—a yammering alarm system.

  “Somebody’s home…” Mom said as we parked the car across the street in an opposing driveway. “You think that alarm’s on because of Rhonda?”

  “Rhonda?” I turned and gave her a piercing gaze. “Rhonda’s in there?”

  Mom nodded. “She wanted to go in all Rambo style and rescue Tim. So I wanted to make sure you were here when she came out.”

  I wanted to punch her. No wonder she’d been all agreeable to help me sneak out of the hospital.

  Mental note: never trust agreeable mommies.

  “Don’t you think you should have told me this before now?”

  “What, and have you all worried and not listening to my advice? Trust me on this one, Rhonda’s fine. But you do need to get in there and help her out.”

  Second mental note of the moment: snarl.

  I moved into the backseat and slipped out of my body. Then I moved as fast as possible through the gate and across the yard. The dogs weren’t out, which was good, since they’d all sense me and want to play fetch.

  My thoughts returned to Mom’s theory on Daniel’s survival, the one she’d expressed to me in the car ride over here. I’d indeed taken someone’s soul. And if it wasn’t Daniel’s, then whose?

  My first assumption was Rai’s. He’d been an astral walker, like I was now that Trench-Coat was gone, and he’d been able to possess my body. He’d also been damn insistent on me somehow killing him. It would explain why Daniel’s astral self looked all wonky right before I took it—Rai had figured I wouldn’t do it if it wasn’t Daniel’s—maybe that my anger wouldn’t be great enough. But he couldn’t actually take on Daniel’s form.

  I also remembered someone screaming out in panic right before I took him, and I had to wonder what it’d done to me, being a Wraith at that moment, that someone would object. Had it been Trench-Coat?

  Gah. Theory. Speculation. But Rai could apparently possess bodies as an astral Traveler. He’d obviously been inside of Daniel’s. He’d said he couldn’t do it as long as a Symbiont could. Well—I was an astral Traveler again. I wondered if I could slip inside a dog—that would get me inside the house pretty easy. No one was going to shoot a guard dog.

  And then I thought about my old German shepherd drinking out of the toilet.

  No thanks. I’ll pass.

  With that unpleasant consideration behind me, I slipped past the black-suited hoodlums in front (several of whom I recognized from my previous stay at Chez Rollins) and stopped just inside the foyer.

  Okay…Susan had been housed in the room upstairs left. I had tossed Tim’s rock upstairs right. So I scrambled upstairs right with the intention of making sure the rock was still in the planter…

  … only to find that the planter with the tree wasn’t there. Uhm.

  Uh-oh.

  I ran in the other direction down the left hall to the door where I’d heard Susan before. I sieved through and stopped just inside the door.

  Plushy hell.

  The room was covered in floor-to-ceiling stuffed animals. Bears, foxes, wolves, seals (did seals have fur?), camels—you name it—it was stuffed into the room. The carpet was pretty tame, a sort of long-pile beige.

  To the right was a princess bed complete with canopy and soft, pastel pink curtains. Would have been even nicer if it hadn’t had hospital straps attached to the mattress.

  I heard footsteps outside, and the door shot open. Two men with machine guns stormed in and then stopped right in front of me.

  “Where’s the kid?” the one on the left said. I narrowed my eyes. Was that Tiny? His face was black-and-blue—my handiwork.

  “Already in the limo. Boss says to check all the rooms. The intruder’s gotta be on this end.”

  I watched them turn and leave.

  Well—so if Rhonda set off the alarm, at least she hadn’t been caught yet. So where was she?

  And which of those three limousines was Susan in? I followed them out of the room, but when they turned right, I went left and back down the stairs to the three large luxury automobiles.

  Without any sort of guide I just started on the left and sieved inside the back, then the trunk. Nothing.

  I repeated the same with the second. Nothing.

  But on the third?

  Nothing.

  I stood in the center of the front, the alarm still blaring out around me, suited men with guns running here and there, and scratched my head.

  What the fuck? Where is Rhonda? Or Susan for that matter?

  Okay, I didn’t see any more limousines, unless there had been one I’d missed before we got here. So, my next plan of attack was to find Rhonda.

  I went back inside and hurried into Rollins’s office.

  And walked right through Rhonda, who’d been leaning against the door, listening out. I of course knew it was her before I turned back because when I passed through her I caught the constant play of Celldweller music in her head.

  Sheesh.

  She of course knew it was me because Rhonda could see me.

  “Zoë?” she hissed.

  I turned and did a palms-up. I also dropped my jaw when I looked at her. She was wearing my outfit!

  Complete with black bunny slippers!

  I cocked an eyebrow and pointed at her, moving my index finger up and down from head to toe. “Excuse you?”

  She actually blushed. “Sorry—but I always thought you looked really cool dressed like this.” She blinked and her eyes widened. “You can talk again. I thought Nona was a bit off when she told me that. So…you’re not all Wraith anymore?”

  “No, just ordinary old me again.” That is, if s
lipping in and out of my body to snoop on people was normal, then go me.

  I just couldn’t take my eyes off of Rhonda. She’d even donned a hair extension to give her a long braided ponytail in the back. I wanted to sniff and feel pride. I had a five-foot-three goth live-action figure.

  A mother couldn’t be more proud.

  Not.

  “Zoë!”

  I turned to see Tim standing there. I ran to him and gave him a hug—luckily astral can touch ethereal. At least in this situation. Steve materialized nearby.

  Steve is here too?

  Wow, a real ghost reunion. That’s when I noticed the potted plant I’d tossed Tim’s rock into was now in Rollins’s office.

  I turned back to Rhonda—and that’s when I noticed the gun—a .38 Special.

  Oh my. I glared at her and pointed to it. Man, I was so accustomed to gesturing and pointing it never occurred to me to simply say “What the fuck?”

  She shrugged. “Sorry, Zoë. I don’t have any cool powers like you—so I had to think Lara Croft.”

  Well, not really. “Lara would have brought a bigger gun. And I don’t have any cool powers anymore. Was Rollins here? Did you see where they took the kid?”

  “Rollins left out that door over there”—she pointed to a shadowed area to my right behind the planter—“when I set off the alarm. I was stuck in here when they came in.”

  “They?”

  With a nod, Rhonda said. “Rollins, two of his wrestler types, and the little girl.”

  Susan.

  “Mom’s outside the gate in a Volvo. She’s waiting on—something to come out of the house for a rescue. I need you all to get in her car and haul ass.”

  “Where are you going?” Steve asked.

  “I’m going to follow Rollins. I’ve got to make sure Susan’s okay. And I have to know what happens with Rollins’s Symbiont. With no more Trench-Coat around, he’s probably feeling a bit superior right now. Now go!”

  I ran through the wall and stopped. I heard voices to my left.

  There was a black limo parked a few feet away. I saw Tiny, and Beckett, and had a brief glimpse of Rollins in the backseat. Beckett closed the trunk of the hulking machine.

  I saw the exhaust start as Tiny cranked the car.

  The trunk! She had to be either in the trunk or in the back with Rollins. The Symbiont inside of Rollins could see me, so I had to be careful.

  I ducked and went around the driver’s side to keep out of Rollins’s sight and sort of sieved/fell into the trunk.

  And landed right beside Hirokumi’s daughter.

  She was alive, but unmoving. I assumed she was still drugged, easier to handle. She wasn’t bound, which would help a bit. When the limo started moving, I remained still and waited.

  When the limo stopped, I took in a deep, astral breath and sieved out of the trunk.

  I’m not sure what I’d expected—maybe some really cool place with a new neat building. But no—I knew this location.

  We were parked outside the newly uncovered three-story spooky building on Perimeter Center Road, just across from Perimeter Square. I could see the signs of all my favorite stores: Comp USA, Bed Bath and Beyond, and even PetSmart! Though I don’t have a pet. Next road up was The Container Store and Borg and Chernoble (Barnes & Noble to you laypeople).

  For years I’d always half tagged the area as wooded, one of those nice features of the South and all her greenery. Then driving out of Bed Bath and Beyond, Rhonda and I saw the trees had been razed, exposing this lurking behemoth of cracked concrete and shattered, half-boarded windows. Who knew there were twentieth-century ancient ruins behind all those pines and oaks?

  In the daylight this place looked unfriendly. At night—we were talking über-unfriendly. Illuminated from the streetlights and the buildings to either side, the thing looked alive, as if it would suck your soul. If you went in, you’d come out a changed being.

  I’d heard it was gonna be a Super Target—same thing.

  They’d parked to the right side, well out of the view of any nutsies awake at one in the morning after Thanksgiving. The moon was full, and it was easy to see, though two of Rollins’s WWE pulled camping lanterns from their limos and set them up on the luxury car roofs.

  I stood just outside the limo I’d hitched a ride in and looked around. Something was different. I could still see the sooty, spooky images I’d begun to see after Trench-Coat’s touch. But I wasn’t Wraith, was I? The hairs on my astral arm rose and I felt like being in the middle of bloodied waters with no shark cage around me.

  Yeah, I think that was a good analogy.

  And they were all there, on the edge of the field’s trees, watching. And we were pretty much cut off here, with only a single dirt road back to Perimeter Center Road.

  Mental note: I will not scream like a girl, I will not scream like a girl.

  A voice on the wind spoke to me. “The wicked comes.”

  I heard the crunch of cement stones on cracked asphalt as a white limo pulled up slowly. It moved lazily around the building and parked several yards away. Two of Koba Hirokumi’s men got out just as Tiny and Beckett got out of Rollins’s limo.

  The four gunmen of the apocalypse took up positions with guns drawn, flanking their respective bosses. I stood to the side and watched.

  Rollins got out first, dressed in a black suit and trench coat. Koba then stepped out, dressed in a white suit and black trench. Polar opposites, yin and yang.

  As far as I figured, Koba Hirokumi was a semi-innocent bystander in all of this. Albeit a very informed one, but still—he’d found the contract and the information on Rollins’s health, then Rollins kidnapped his daughter. I mean, threatening to use me as bait and killing me, that had all been show, right?

  “The Archer is dead.”

  Rollins nodded. “I must say—I had not thought it possible. Your plan worked. You tricked the Wraith into this?”

  Hirokumi gave a short nod. “Hai. And in doing so, she has destroyed her own powers. She can trouble us no more.”

  !!!

  Wait a damned minute. Tricked me into destroying Trench-Coat? I thought the outcome was supposed to be me and Daniel dead.

  Rollins nodded. “And what of the detective?”

  Ah-ha!

  Hirokumi clasped his hands in front of him. “The detective miraculously survived his encounter with the Archer. But if he becomes a problem later, he can be easily dispatched. We can use him to control her.”

  “What about Him? Is He appeased?”

  Hirokumi looked really smug. “The Suzerain is always appeased.” Susi—what? What the hell was that? Was that French? Was he talking about the Phantasm thing?

  Did I mention that I hated smug?

  Rollins stepped forward, and his gunmen held out their weapons. Hirokumi’s moved as well. “Is He here?”

  “We have not seen Him.” Hirokumi cracked a smile. And let me tell you—it looked ghastly in this light. Ever seen a scarecrow smile? Shiver.

  Rollins held out his hand. “Give me my contract, and I’ll have your daughter given to you.”

  Here we go, I thought.

  Boy was I wrong.

  Hirokumi shook his head. “I give her to you, with no regrets. She can be your way station.” He smiled again. Ugh. “When you accept my offer.”

  Way station. Rai’s words came back: “She is to be the vessel.”

  Now I was really confused. And so was Rollins. He looked from Hirokumi to his own men and narrowed his eyes before continuing. “What trickery is this?”

  Hirokumi took several steps forward. Rollins’s men held their guns up and aimed, as did Hirokumi’s men, but Koba motioned them to lower their weapons before he spoke. “The body you now possess, it still grows old, and feeble. It will die, and the contract will evaporate as ash in your hands. You know as well as I there is no protection from the Suzerain’s claim. He will have Rollins’s soul and you will be destroyed.”

  I felt just as dumbfounded as R
ollins looked, though I was pretty sure this Suzy-rain guy was the Phantasm that created Trench-Coat, and wanted Rollins’s Symbiont. I still think it’s a French word.

  “I offer you my daughter as a place to hide away from His attention. Inside of her, in the place made for you by my seer, the damned, you will know peace and rest. There, you may feed from her soul and grow powerful, before I offer you my own body.” He put his hands to his chest. “In here you will have more money, power, women, and wine.”

  What the fuck?

  Rollins cocked his head to the side. “You—would give me—so wonderful a gift as your daughter’s soul?”

  No…no, no, no. Hell no.

  Hirokumi nodded. He actually beamed with delight as he gave a short bow in agreement. “Hai.”

  “What’s wrong with your body?” Rollins said, and shoved his hands into his coat pockets. “Why offer me this, and suffer His anger and vengeance?”

  My question precisely.

  “I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s a year ago,” Koba Hirokumi said quietly. “The disease’s effects have started over the course of this year. It is a death I do not wish to succumb to. I wish a longer life—there are things I must accomplish, an empire I must finish building.”

  “So why not allow me to enter you now?”

  “Because I still have safety precautions to set in place, so that if you overcome me, you will not win, as you did with Theodore. I will still have control.”

  Pissed. Oh I was pissed. This motherfucker had Parkinson’s, and was offering his daughter’s life up to get an oogy in him?

  But Koba was still talking. “But please, do not think of me as an enemy, but as your only hope. The Phantasm comes. The contract will not save the soul you hoard within that body. I have removed your adversary. The only thing on the physical plane that could harm you.”

  Rollins spoke. “But when I didn’t respond to you, you sent out a signal to the Phantasm that conjured me. Because you knew he would find me, and I was forced to show my hand.”

  I put my hands to my ears. This was all becoming very upsetting. We’d all been played. All of us. By Hirokumi.

  “So the girl…” And I thought I saw real hunger in Rollins’s eyes. “She is here to wet my whistle?”