Haunted

by Kelley Armstrong

  I opened my mouth to cast, but could only gasp.

  "Now it'll be no trouble pinning the blame on your daughter, when it really is her hands choking the life from her guardian."

  Her grip tightened and the world dipped into blackness. I fought to stay conscious, writhing beneath her, trying to get an arm or leg free.

  "Why do you struggle?" she said. "You aren't going to die. You already did. You'll just return to where you were. It's the little witch who will suffer for your failure. Her and her husband, killed by their dear--"

  The Nix jerked back, her grip loosening. She looked up over my head.

  "Wait your turn, sorcerer," she snarled.

  I tilted my head back to see Lucas pull a shovel from the wall.

  "Get off her," he said.

  The Nix's eyes went wide. "Lucas? What are you--?"

  "I know you aren't Savannah," he said, voice level. "Now get off her."

  As he pulled the shovel back, I wriggled out from under the Nix. She didn't even seem to notice, just smiled and got to her feet. Lucas swung back the shovel.

  "Do you really think you can do that?" she asked. "What if you kill her? Hit just the right spot, and down she goes, never to get up again."

  Lucas hesitated. I opened my mouth to tell him to do it, to hit her on the shoulder or the torso, just knock her down, but my bruised throat wouldn't let out anything more than a gasp. Lucas dropped the shovel and raised his hands to cast. The Nix charged.

  I pushed to my feet, gasping for breath. The Nix grabbed Lucas by the arm and whipped him against the wall. His head struck a beam. She threw his limp body aside and turned on me.

  I cast the anti-demon spell. Even as the words left my lips, panic shot through me. Did Paige know this spell? What else--

  The Nix went rigid. Her limbs convulsed and she toppled back to the floor. I dove for her, but she kicked me away, stumbled to her feet, and staggered through the back door, into the house. Her footfalls stumbled down the stairs. Perfect. There was no escape route from the windowless basement. She'd have to come back this way. That anti-demon spell had almost drained Paige's reserve, and I was still gasping for air. I needed a moment. I looked down at Lucas. He needed me to take a moment.

  I knelt beside Lucas and felt his pulse. Still strong. I cast a couple of healing spells in succession. It zapped the rest of Paige's spell-casting power, but I knew it was what she'd want me to do. After another quick check of his pulse and breathing, I leaned back on my heels and struggled to catch my breath.

  The Nix was in Savannah. To stop her, I'd need to do what Lucas hadn't been able to do--attack my daughter.

  I pushed to my feet and ran into the house.

  I touched down on the last step and paused there, scanning the dark basement. To my left was the freezer and cold cellar. To my right, the laundry room. Behind me would be two more rooms--

  A roar. I looked up to see Savannah running at me from the workshop. As she charged, she swung a hammer back over her head. And I did nothing. I couldn't. I knew this wasn't Savannah and yet that's who I saw--my child running at me, hammer raised, face contorted with hate.

  At the last second, I sprang from the step. The hammer smashed into my shoulder blade. Bone cracked. Paige's bone, not mine. I tried not to think of that, that every blow I took, every injury I allowed, she would suffer afterward. Before the Nix said that, I hadn't considered the implications of borrowing this body, but now, as I danced out of the reach of that flying hammer, it was all I could think about.

  I cast a fireball, but the Nix brushed it off. What did she care about burns and scars and broken bones? It wasn't her body. Only lethal spells could stop her, and that was one step I'd never take, no matter how bad things got. While she'd been in Jaime's body, there had always been that option, however much I would have regretted it. But now, as we faced off, I saw how powerless I really was in this struggle. So long as she was in my daughter's body, I wouldn't do anything that might seriously harm her. And so long as I was in Paige's body, I wouldn't take any risk that might seriously harm her.

  The Nix lunged, hammer raised. I spun to the side but, still unaccustomed to this body, I stumbled as I came out of the spin. The hammer hit me again in the shoulder, in the same spot. I howled and crumpled. As I fell, I grabbed for the hammer with my other hand. I managed to snag the head. The Nix swung the hammer and my feet flew out from under me, but I hung on, and the handle slid from her grip.

  As I hit the floor, I rolled, ignoring the lightning bolt of pain that shot through my shoulder. I leapt to my feet, still holding the hammer. The Nix rushed at me. I flipped the hammer around and swung. My first instinct was to aim at her upper torso, but at the last second, seeing my daughter's face, I couldn't do it. I swung low. With the sudden change in direction, and the one-handed swing, the blow only glanced off her hip. She grabbed the hammer, threw it aside, and slammed me down to the floor.

  In that second, as I went down, I knew there was only one way to save Paige and Savannah.

  "I'm sorry, Kris," I whispered as I hit the floor.

  The Nix pinned me. Her hands went around my throat. I closed my eyes and sent up two silent words.

  "I'm ready."

  The room flashed, filling with a bolt of light so bright it blinded me. The light flared again. This time the bolt hit me, filling me with a white-hot heat.

  I reached up with my good arm, grabbed the Nix's forearm, and wrenched it from my throat. Her eyes widened. She looked into mine, blinked in surprise, then curled back her lip.

  "You think that will help you, angel?" she said.

  "I sure as hell hope so," I said as I pushed myself up. "It cost me more than I could afford to pay."

  She pinned me again. We struggled. I could feel the new strength coursing through me, but it wasn't enough. My shoulder still pulsed with pain, and I could barely move that arm. The best I could do was hold her off. After a few minutes of tussling for the upper hand, I managed to get on top of her. Before I could reach for her throat, she grabbed both my arms and held them fast. Then she looked into my eyes and smiled.

  "You can still do it," she said. "All you need to do is kill me. You must have a lethal spell locked in that little brain somewhere. Go ahead. Try it."

  Oh, I had a spell, all right. But not the kind she was hoping I'd use. As the last words of the anti-demon spell left my lips, I tensed, ready to rip my hands from her grasp the moment the shock wave hit her.

  Nothing happened.

  I tried again, tongue tripping over the words. But it was too late. Paige didn't know the anti-demon spell well enough to cast it reliably, and now I'd wasted her power on a miscast.

  I'd sacrificed my afterlife to become an angel, and I still couldn't save them. I was going to fail...and lose everything.

  "Something wrong?" the Nix said, laughing.

  She pushed up on my forearms and my body started to lift off hers. I struggled to stay on top, but the cast had sapped more than spell-power. She flipped me off her. When I tried to roll out of the way, she grabbed me and threw me onto my back. Then she pounced, landing on my chest so hard the air flew from my lungs. Her face came down to mine. I started a binding spell, a desperate last-ditch attempt to--

  "Wait!"

  The voice was distant, almost inaudible. A woman's voice, coming from somewhere inside me.

  "Try this," it whispered.

  Words flew into my head. The start of an incantation. I didn't have time to think. I opened my mouth and said the words, repeating them as they came. Greek. Something to do with wind. A witch spell.

  The Nix gasped. Her head flew back, eyes widening in shock. She whipped her head forward, lips twisting in a snarl. Her hands started for my throat, then stopped as her mouth opened and closed, gasping for breath. Her eyes met mine. I saw my daughter's eyes, bulging, her lips turning blue. And I couldn't do it. I stopped casting.

  "No!" the voice whispered. "Keep going."

  I hesitated. I was going to kill my
daughter. My daughter! No, I couldn't do this. I couldn't take the chance. What if--

  "Close your eyes and cast. It'll be okay."

  I gritted my teeth and forced my eyes closed. Then I restarted the cast. I could hear the Nix gasping. My daughter's voice gasping. My daughter struggling to breathe, dying. I dug my nails into my palms and kept casting, every fiber in me tensed, waiting for that final breath.

  Savannah collapsed onto me. She'd stopped breathing. I flipped her over, mouth going down to hers.

  Then I saw the spirit-glow pulsing around her. The Nix. I had to stop her first. No! I had to save my daughter. I stopped, frozen, staring at Savannah and the yellowish aura leeching from her body.

  Stop the Nix and you save Savannah.

  I tore my gaze from my daughter and pushed to my feet. I put out my hands. My lips moved automatically in another unfamiliar incantation and the sword appeared. Hands trembling, I forced my fingers around the hilt. Then I stepped back, looked down at Savannah one last time, and swung the sword at the Nix.

  I saw it connect. Saw it slice into her. Saw her throw back her head in a howl of rage. Footsteps raced down the steps. I looked up to see Lucas running down. I opened my mouth to call to him. Then everything went dark.

  51

  "SAVANNAH!"

  I jerked up my head to see the middle Fate standing at her wheel.

  "Where's--?" I began, rushing forward.

  She held up a hand and I stopped as abruptly as if I'd hit a wall. With a wave of that hand, a circle of light appeared before me. In it I saw Savannah, sitting up, rubbing the back of her head, Lucas and Paige crouched beside her. The Fate motioned again, and the scene disappeared.

  "Sh-she's okay," I said.

  "She's fine."

  "And the Nix. Did it work? Did I catch--"

  "You did. She's back where she belongs."

  I stood there a moment, struggling to take it in. When I did, I remembered the price I'd paid for this victory.

  "I'm an angel now, aren't I?" I whispered.

  She nodded.

  "And you can't undo that, can you?"

  A slow, sad shake of her head.

  I shook off the terror and grief settling into my gut, pulled myself up straight, and looked her in the eye. "I owed you a favor, but I went way beyond repaying that. I gave up everything I had in this world to repay it. You said I have to leave this dimension, that I can't stay with Kristof, but I don't understand--"

  "You will," she said softly. "Everything will change for you now, Eve. An angel can't stay here. It's not an arbitrary rule. It's a necessity. You are an angel now, so you must live in their world."

  "Then I will, too," said a voice behind me.

  I turned to see Kristof there. I stepped toward him, but hit a barrier. I wheeled back on the Fate.

  "So this is it? I can't even go near him? Goddamn it, I don't deserve this! Maybe I did some awful things in my life, but I do not deserve this."

  "This is not a punishment, Eve."

  "Well, it sure as hell feels like one."

  Kristof cleared his throat. "You said she can't stay here. That's fine. I'll go with her."

  The elderly Fate appeared. "You will, will you? You'd have no place there, Kristof, no more than she'd have here."

  He crossed his arms. "She made her sacrifice, now I'm making mine."

  "Very noble, but the answer is no. We need you here."

  "For what? To play ghost lawyer? There are thousands of--"

  "Don't question us, Kristof. We have our reasons, and our plans. And your place is here." She turned to me. "And your place is there, with the angels. But there is a way..." The old Fate's lips curved a fraction, in something almost like a smile. "There's always a way."

  Kristof stepped forward. Before either of us could ask, she moved to the edge of the dais. Then, with a lift of her fingers, she levitated to the floor. One stride and she was beside me. I blinked. She was so tiny, not even reaching my shoulder. She laid a hand on my arm. Her bright eyes looked up into mine.

  "You said this feels like a punishment. Do you really think we'd be so cruel, Eve? Yes, we wanted you to join our angels, but when you refused, we accepted that. What you did down there, the sacrifice you made...I won't say I underestimated you, because I've always known what you were capable of"--a sly smile--"with the right prompting. But this sacrifice none of us expected. When you made it, we decided we'd do all we could to make it easier on you."

  "So I get to stay--"

  "In the ghost world? No. That, I'm afraid, is impossible." She returned to the dais, but stayed in front of the wheel. "If there's one thing you clearly understand, Eve, it's the nature of a bargain. You give and you take, in even proportion. That's what we can offer."

  The child Fate appeared. "Do you know the story of Persephone and Demeter?"

  "A Greek myth to explain the seasons, I think," I said.

  "That's right. Hades, Lord of the Underworld, wanted Persephone for his bride, so he stole her away. Her mother beseeched the gods for help, and they made a deal with Hades, that Persephone would spend summers on earth and winters in the underworld. How does that sound?" Her pretty face scrunched up. "Well, not exactly that, but something like it."

  Before we could answer, her middle sister took over.

  "You now have a job to do, Eve, and we expect you to do it. You also have another life to lead, and we want you to do that. Half the year you will be with the angels, and half you will live here, with Kristof, as a ghost."

  I looked at Kristof. He smiled.

  "We'll take it."

  Epilogue

  THE BIBLE TELLS US THAT GOD CREATED THE EARTH IN a week. I don't know much about religious history, but I do remember that one. As for whether it's true, I'll leave that to the scholars. All I know is that a lot can happen in a week. You can go from being a ghost pining for your daughter to a heavenly bounty-hunter on the trail of a demi-demon killer. And you can go from reluctant crusader to full-time angel, locking yourself into an eternal contract as a protector of justice. And other times, the transition isn't so obvious, but in its own way, just as life-altering.

  It had been a week since I brought in the Nix. I was still in the ghost world--the Fates had given me one more month here, as I prepared for my passage to the angel world. I still didn't know what to expect. I'd already sat through two days of orientation crap, but most of it had consisted of a list of rules too long for anyone without a full-blooded angel's perfect memory...or, at least, that was the excuse I'd use when I started breaking them.

  At the end of the week, the Fates gave Trsiel and me our first assignment. Nothing tough--just a routine rousting of some haunters, but with definite possibilities for fun. Before I embarked on that, though, there was something I had to do.

  Kristof accompanied me as far as Lucas and Paige's backyard. I stood in that yard for a while, looking up at the house, remembering what it had smelled like, what it had felt like to be there, really there, committing it all to memory. Then, slowly, I released Kris's hand and headed for the back door.

  When I stepped inside, Lucas and Paige were in the kitchen, Lucas's back against the counter, a dish towel over his shoulder, Paige leaning against him, holding his hands, face raised to his as they talked in murmurs.

  "Hey, guys," I said softly. "Just came by to say thanks. I know you can't hear me, but I wanted to say it anyway. Thanks for everything. You're doing a great job with her. An amazing job."

  Lucas chuckled at something Paige said, and brushed a curl off her cheek.

  The back door banged open.

  "Anybody home?" a voice shouted, loud enough to shake the rafters.

  I turned to see a young man with light-brown hair, broad shoulders, and a broader grin. A familiar face, at least in this house.

  "Adam!" Paige disengaged from Lucas and turned as Adam caught her up in a hug, being careful not to jar her injured shoulder. "This is a surprise. I didn't expect you until Monday."

  "T
he real surprise is yet to come." Adam winked over her head at Lucas. "So are we ready for Monday's meeting? Jaime's coming, isn't she? Recovered from her ordeal?"

  As they talked, I slipped to the doorway.

  "Bye, guys," I whispered. "I wish you all the best. You deserve it."

  I found Savannah in her room, dressed in jeans and a bra, talking on the phone as she surveyed a bed covered in shirts.

  "...taking Paige away for the weekend," she said. "Romantic getaway, big surprise and all that." She paused, then snorted. "Yeah, I wish. I can't stay overnight by myself until I'm eighteen. Can you believe that? So they called in Adam."

  She lifted two shirts and held them up, one after the other, peering at her reflection in the mirror, then tossing both on the floor with a lip-twist of disgust.

  "Yeah, yeah, he's cute, but he's even older than Paige." Pause. "Twenty-six." She pulled a face. "That's sick! No way."

  She grabbed a T-shirt from the bed, mumbled "Hold on," then pulled it over her head. It was at least two sizes too small. She looked in the mirror, checking it out from all angles, then gave a nod of satisfaction and reached for her hairbrush with one hand and the phone with the other.

  "I have to go, baby," I said as she brushed her hair, still chattering to her friend. "I won't be coming around like I used to, and I just wanted to tell you that. You know it doesn't mean anything's changed. You're still the best damned thing I ever did. But you've got your life, and now, finally, maybe I have mine."

  A double-knock at the door.

  "What?" Savannah yelled.

  "Everyone decent?" Adam called. "I'm coming in."

  As Savannah swiped on lip gloss, Adam jangled the door handle. She flew across the room and threw it open.

  "What the hell are you doing?" she said. "This is my room. You can't just barge in here."

  He rolled his eyes. "Oh, I was just getting you going." He strolled in and looked around. "See you haven't cleaned it since the last time I was here."

  "Hey, this is my room! Get out!"

  He turned to do just that, and she grabbed him by the arm.

  "Don't I even get a hello?" she said. "God, you're so rude."