"If you are up to it, I have some questions that need answered," I said.
"Ask away," he said.
"What was it again that you said you were?" I asked. "A human soul warrior? Could you elaborate on that a bit? I've never heard of them before."
He smiled grimly. "I was God's warrior in life and am still so even in death. The souls of the Creator's warriors on earth can continue their Lord's work even in the afterlife." He grimaced. "The word conjures up images of evil, I know, but currently I believe you would say I am possessing Dunwood's body. But I had his permission, I swear it."
I believed him. He had still been Dunwood when he had told me that he allowed this. Now, I understood what he was referencing.
"So, what exactly happened here?" Jed asked.
He nodded at the rift. "That happened. It has grown large enough now for Hell to send through souls. Evil souls. They cannot force themselves on one marked by the Lord, but without a crucifix—Dunwood was weak." He jerked his head toward the body. "And he did not even possess the faith to fight them."
My sister’s hand reached up to finger her small gold cross, a present from Jed. He wore the match to it around his neck. Made me desperately wish I had one. But then I would by day’s end, even if I had to carve a small one from wood. I was pretty sure the material it was made from wouldn’t matter.
"Are we safe here?" Jed asked. "We both wear crosses." He lifted his little golden cross for the warrior to see.
"If you are believers, then by wearing the symbol of the Lord, you are safe from the Hell souls." He paused. "But you would not be safe from those possessed by them. That man would have killed your Dunwood, had he not shot him. The man may have been innocent, the souls inside him were not."
"Souls?" Taz’s voice had a bit of a squeak to it. "As in more than one?"
He nodded grimly. "The souls cannot travel more than a few feet without a vessel—a living human body. I do not know who this man is or how he came to be here, but he was destined by Hell to carry multiple souls until they each found a vessel."
"A carrier of evil souls?" Jed asked in horror. "How many souls could he carry?"
He shrugged. "Rather like an old-fashioned clown car, I'm afraid. More than you would think possible."
The warrior looked at Jed. "And now might I ask a very important question of my own?" At Jed's nod, he did. "Do you know what caused this rift?"
As Jed was explaining everything we knew, Rose called Taz from her van that she had arrived and was waiting for us. Taz asked her for just a couple of minutes and tried to give her the basics of what had happened. Turns out phones are better for lengthy conversations, so in the end Taz just rang her cell phone. She told us to take our time, but hurry.
I could relate to that. This place gave me the major creeps too.
Taz laid her hand on Jed's arm to get his attention. "Rose is here. I really think we should move this conversation to the van." I saw her pointed glance at me, as did Jed.
Yes, woman without a crucifix here.
While he was agreeable, the warrior was not. "I cannot leave this site," he said. "I must guard against what may come through." He raised a heavy golden cross, about the size of the brand that graced the dead man's forehead. "I am armed to deal with them."
I thought for a minute, then handed him my cell phone. "Do you know how this works?" I asked.
He smiled. "I am familiar with them, yes."
"All of our numbers are in the phone if you need to reach us. And this way we can check in with you too."
"A practical idea. Thank you."
"And just for reference, who were you when you were human? It would be nice to have a name to call you."
He was quiet. "I do not know. The Maker removes our memory of former life to make the transition back to earth easier. Otherwise it would be too tempting, and perhaps even too painful, to try to take up where we left off. It is wise of Him, but..."
"But still, you would like to know," Jed finished. "I totally understand that. So, what would you like us to call you?"
He thought for a minute. "I do recall a fondness for Bugs Bunny. How about Elmer?" He smiled. "Although, I promise I am a better hunter than he."
"Elmer it is then," Jed agreed.
"One last thing before you go," he said grimly. "You say a coven of witches opened the rift wider. If they were responsible for that woman's death as well, every one of them is likely to now be a full-on vessel of Hell. They would have been taken the instant the rift became wide enough."
Oh, great. As if a coven of evil witches wasn't enough, now they were Hell-spawn too.
Chapter 19
Taz and Jed hadn't been very surprised when I'd announced that I was staying when we reached the edge of the clearing. I wouldn't have waited that long, but the warrior had said that the hell souls couldn't last more than a few yards from the rift without a body. And I had a favor to ask of my sister.
As I walked back toward... Elmer, I guess is what we were to call him, her tiny gold cross rested in that little hollow at the center of my collar bone. My next bow sell would be put toward one of my own. Well, two actually. I was kind of planning on a matched set like Taz and Jed's. It was a nice touch. And I didn't want Dunwood exposed again. If he lived through this time of course.
Elmer turned to face me as I came back out from the trees. His mouth opened, then shut. He didn't look happy, but then he had probably figured out that I wasn't about to change my mind. People seem to be able to read me here.
"You shouldn't be here," he said. "It is my job to guard this tear, not yours."
I just gave him a long look. "I'm not here to guard the rift, so have at it," I said. "I'm here to guard Dunwood."
He gave a good imitation of Dunwood's lopsided smile. "Ah, yes. I should have guessed." He took a minute to look me over. "You are the one who risked Faerie to save those human souls, aren't you?"
The smile was tugging at my heart, so I turned my face toward the rift to keep my emotions in check. Small things. After a second to pull myself together, I nodded. "It turned out to not be the single person mission I had planned. I had help." Instead of turning back to the man wearing Dunwood's face, I simply jerked my head toward him. "Him for one."
His voice was quiet. "Yes, so I'd heard. Heaven has eyes on the two of you. Both of you have served Him well here."
I scoffed. "Yes, so well that our third partner's mate was kidnapped and sacrificed, and Dunwood had to agree to a heavenly possession in order to save himself. I wouldn't exactly count that as a win."
"Those humans that you saved might think differently about it."
True. I had to give him his point on that one.
"So how does one sign up for that afterlife job of yours? Is there some type of application process?" Before Dunwood's help in finding my vocation, I had become very familiar with the world's job application process. Basically, to learn that I wasn't qualified to do much here that would earn a wage. Yet another reason to be thankful to the sheriff.
"Actually, it's more like a draft than a volunteer basis." He paused. "Although, I suppose it would be possible to turn it down. Of course, with the caliber of people that are asked, I don't think any have taken that option."
There wasn’t a single ounce of bragging in his words. It was obviously just a simple statement of fact.
"Makes sense, I guess. It would just be nice to know that if I don't make it through this, I could still come back and help the Benandanti survive. Keep on fighting the Fae off our lands."
Now it was his turn to scoff. "We don't exactly get to choose our missions, you know. He puts us where He wants to. And we don't have a clue who we were in life. Not while on earth, anyway. I seem to recall that once back up there, it comes back. But even that part is kind of hazy."
I shrugged. "Memory or no, the end result would be the same, right? You still get to fight the good fight." I thought about it. Yeah, that would be enough for me.
He sighed. "I know i
t should be good enough... and it is, truly. It's just that I think I still have loved ones living here. It would be nice to be able to check in on them. Kind of hard to do when you don't even know who they are."
"You are a recently deceased?"
"I can't be entirely sure," he said, "but this weapon of Dunwood's. It's very familiar to me. I know how it works. Unless you tell me that he was into antique weaponry, I'd say that pretty well dates my time here on earth. Doesn't it?"
I'd been studying guns ever since Dunwood had introduced me to them. Currently my budget still only allowed me to own the one, but the sheriff on the other hand, had quite a collection. I took a closer look at the gun in Elmer's hand. It looked like his early third generation Glock to me. Not the updated fourth generation he carried at work. But it was his personal favorite to carry off duty.
"Well, that gun is a Glock, and they didn't start making them until the eighties. So that narrows it down a bit. And the features on that gun, like those finger groves on the grip there, those weren't added until the third generation of production models." I had to think for a minute. "If I'm recalling my details right, I think that would place that firearm as being manufactured somewhere in the nineties or later."
He raised an eyebrow. "Not bad for someone who spent her entire life in a place with no guns."
I shrugged, glancing away again. "I had a great teacher."
We were quiet for a few minutes. Just two warriors of God standing at Hell's gate. Then we got tired of standing, so we made our way over to the tree line so that we could rest our backs against the trunk of a decent size tree.
He waited until we had settled in to speak again. "I really will try to protect him, you know."
"I would expect no less from a soul warrior. In this battle, there simply can't be guarantees given." I paused, choosing my words carefully. "But you should know that I don't intend to let you out of my sight until Dunwood is back in charge." I paused again, thinking. "Maybe not even then. I was away from the man for a span of a few hours and just look what he got himself into."
That earned me another lopsided smile. That one didn't hurt quite so bad. I must be getting used to it.
I looked back toward the rift. "Can you see them? The souls, I mean."
Elmer shook his head. "Not exactly. The tear will glow bright as they come through it, but only for a second or two. The souls themselves are invisible."
"But you said that they can't last out here without a body, right? I mean, if they don't find a body, they have to go back? Or are they destroyed?"
"I wish I could say that they evaporated, but they simply go back, another flare in the tear." He paused. "Sorry for the rhyme there."
"So the cameras that the pack planted wouldn't see them, so we can't tell how many we are dealing with?" I asked.
"Afraid not. And if there was a whole coven of witches to possess—especially ones who had agreed to a human sacrifice for power—they could really pack themselves in those bodies. All you might catch on the film is a really long, bright flare with the... rift, when they came through. No way to know how many."
"If you had to make a guess? This sounds really weird to be asking this, but just how many souls can fit in a body?" After all, he hadn’t given Jed’s question a true answer.
"The body is made, of course, to only hold one. Two can be arranged as long as one agrees to allow the other to be dominant. That is your usual possession type of thing." He was quiet for a minute. This next part must be really bad. "But the human body is strong and resilient. It could probably hold four or five souls at a time. The thing is—these evil souls? I just don't see any of them agreeing to allow another to be dominant."
I could feel my brows draw together as I turned to face him head on. "What exactly are you saying?"
"I'm saying that anyone harboring more than one additional soul will be driven instantly insane. Their actions will be irrational and extremely violent. They would make the worst villain in history look like a pussycat."
Oh. Is that all.
Chapter 20
Once Elmer realized I was determined not to go anywhere, he let up and decided that we should sleep in shifts. Dunwood's body still needed sleep, whether he was in charge of it or not. And eventually, our bodies would demand the rest. We didn't want it to be right before the evil horde showed up.
We slept in turns. Luckily, I was the one that was sleeping when the change happened. It was so subtle, I'm not sure I would have caught it.
I felt him stand and woke. Being raised in Faerie had made me into a very light sleeper to say the least. Following him over to the rift, I could tell he was tense. I just couldn't see why.
"Did it flair?" I asked.
"No," he said, peering closely at the rift. "But it's changed." He held his hand up before the rift and walked from side to side. "Damn."
"What?"
He slumped. "It will do us no good to guard this entry any longer."
"Why not?" I mean, it was still right there.
"She has opened a gateway. The evil that will feed this tear will be done at the other end of it. And the evil that comes from it will go there."
Great. I was familiar with Titania's portals. There was simply no way to know where the other end to one was. Although it was a safe bet it was in this realm. Otherwise, there wouldn't be Faerie gates, rights?
Turns out it was a good thing that we didn't have to guard it any longer.
JED AND TAZ HAD DECIDED to stay the night—well, morning actually—at Rose's. It had been a late night before, and they'd only gotten a couple of hours of sleep before Dunwood's frantic call. A while back Taz had started keeping our dad's old motorcycle at her house for transportation in between those lifts that Coyote had been giving us. It had come in handy before.
My sister and her mate had already claimed the sleeper sofa before we got there. That was fine by me. I knew from experience that the mattress on that thing was lumpy as heck. The floor would do for me.
Rose, of course, wouldn’t hear of it. She pulled out the roll-away bed and set it up beside the couch. It was a tight fit, but Elmer and I could have made it work. Turns out that Elmer was a lot like Dunwood in the chivalry department.
“You take the bed,” he said. “I’ll take the floor beside it.”
That frustrated Rose, who was determined to be a good hostess, even at this ridiculous hour. A few minutes later she came back with two Yoga mats, and extra pillows and blankets. Not a bad makeshift bed, that.
I wasn't sure I would be able to fall asleep, but I did. Normally, I didn’t like having the pack together for long periods of time. It made a far too easy target for Titania. But tonight, I wanted them all near. It felt... safer. And there was too much to be done tomorrow—well, today, come to think of it—to go totally without rest. But just because I fell asleep, doesn't mean to say that I got to stay asleep for long.
The grandfather clock in her living room had said four o’clock in the morning when I last glanced at it before drifting off. At Rose's shout, it said five thirty. Not that my brain thought that through at the time, of course. No, I was up and running with my soul warrior—actually a couple of steps behind him, as he was just that little bit faster than me on the uptake—down the hall toward the sound.
We found Rose standing in Lily's room, throwing open closet doors and frantically searching the room. Jed brushed past us, strode forward, and placed his hands on her shoulders, stopping her.
"Rose?" he asked. "What's wrong?"
I looked around the room. I knew what she was going to say before she even said it. Lily was gone.
He looked at the bed, which was pristinely made up with its comforter and row of pillows all in place. My heart twanged at the sight of her stuffed rabbit laying there on her pillow waiting for her.
"When did you last see her?" Taz asked. Like me, she was already sniffing the room out. "Was she here when you came to get us last night?"
"I don't know," Rose wailed. "I
didn't want to wake her up, so I just left a note for her on my bedroom door in case she was looking for me." She took a deep breath in and nodded to Jed to let her go. "She was here at dinner. I was late coming home, and I brought a veggie pizza for supper. We ate, then talked for a little while, and I turned in for the night. Maggie and the pups were here, so I thought... "
She turned to my sister, a touch of panic still in her eyes. Understandable. Especially after what had happened to Cin’s mate.
Taz shook her head. "No scents in here but us. Mostly Lily and you, actually. No stranger smells." Wherever Lily had gone, she had gone of her own free will. We searched the room quickly but there was no note, nothing to tell us where she had gone.
"Lily wouldn't just take off like that. She wouldn't," Rose said. "Are you sure no one else was in here? What about the rest of the house?"
We went through the house, and even walked around it on the outside to be sure. There were latent scents of the pack, but any stranger scents were old ones. Weak and almost gone, they simply couldn't have been from last night. Shaking my head, I turned to her. "Nothing." I looked at her crestfallen face. "But think of it this way, Rose. I mean, that's a good thing, right? It means she wasn't kidnapped. She just left. On her own. Which means that she is probably okay, right?"
I really didn't know who I was trying to convince the most, her or me. Either way, it wasn't really working. Lily was about as reliable a teenager as you could get. Sneaking out in the middle of the night just wasn't like her. Something major was up. And for her not to make it back in time for her Gran's roll call? It just couldn't be good.
We had ended our search by the garage and a quick peak inside showed us that Lily's bike was missing.
"You know, Rose," Jed said. "This is a good sign too. It means that Lily has transportation. She wasn't just picked up by someone. That's good. Why don't you go in and make some calls to her friend's parents, and the rest of us will see if we can't track her down."
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