Fragile Spirits (13 page)

21st-Century Cycle, Journal Entry 6:

The resolution of a child Hindered was executed without incident, resulting in a positive conclusion. The Speaker is assuming her role effectively. The working relationship between Speaker and Protector is satisfactory.

Paul Blackwell—Protector 993

T
hanksgiving was usually a terrible time for me. Loved ones traveling all over the country to spend time with their families and give thanks for their blessings . . . Yeah, not something I could relate to.

This year was different, though. Standing in front of the school, I shared some of the buzz and adrenaline experienced by my classmates who were preparing to go on trips or have huge feasts with family. There was a great deal of excitement about having a five-day weekend too. That certainly appealed to me. Vivienne was staying in town and had asked me to have dinner at her house.

My stomach churned as I waited for her to arrive, wondering how she’d act when she saw me today. I’d been up most of the night replaying her kiss over and over in my mind.

I grinned as she got out of Cinda’s rental car and approached the front doors of the school. She smiled back, and a wash of excitement from her flooded through me. Good. No regrets.

She looked great in her uniform. She had her jet-black hair pulled back in a braid, but layers of bangs framed her face, giving her a bit of a Goth edge, even with the uniform. I noticed she had on no jewelry and much less makeup than usual. Her fingernails were natural instead of black. Her skirt seemed a little short, which might get her busted by the administration, but was totally okay by me. I almost laughed out loud when I noticed the bandage on her arm was held in place by black Band-Aids with pink skulls on them. Where in the world would someone buy something like that?

“Hey,” she said, stopping several feet away.

“Hey, yourself,” I answered.

She shifted her backpack to her other shoulder. “Did you sleep well last night?”

“Not a wink.”

She laughed. “Good.” She turned in a circle. “Do you like my new look?”

“I kind of miss the old one,” I answered honestly. “But rules are rules.”

She took a step closer. Too close. “And you like rules, don’t you, Paul?”

“Some of them.” Her nearness and smell were driving me crazy, as was the memory of the heated kiss up against my car last night. “I don’t like the detention-if-we’re-late-to-class rule, for sure.”

The bell rang and saved me from breaking another rule: the no-public-displays-of-affection-on-campus rule.

Vivienne was in all my classes, as were Lenzi and Alden. The day was a total blow-off. None of the teachers were in the mood to really do any meaningful work the last day before a holiday, which was a good thing because the students were too rowdy to settle down enough to listen. We watched movies in two classes while my mind wandered to last evening. We had free reading in English, but we all just chatted instead while our teacher gossiped with the teacher across the hall. Everyone was ready for a long break. Everyone except Ms. Mueller, that is. She held class as usual.

“Pull out your notes. Today is no different in this classroom from any other.”

No words had ever been less true.

Everything went along fine—well, fine if monotonous lecturing on the post Civil War reconstruction is fine.

Except for Alden, no one in the class was listening to a word Ms. Mueller was blabbing. He always listened, because history was his thing. Maybe it would be my thing too when my soul was centuries old. For now, history was history and not my own past.

Lenzi gasped. Alden immediately spun to face her. I felt Lenzi’s fear spike, but Vivienne’s trumped it.

“What the hell is that?” Vivienne whispered. “Ugh. It stinks.” She covered her nose and mouth with her hand.

Alden stood right as Ms. Mueller grabbed the sides of her podium, slumped over, and groaned. A bizarre, glazed look crossed over her face and then she straightened back up. It was obvious what had happened the moment she grinned.

“Shit. She’s been possessed,” Alden whispered. “We need to do something before the demon hurts a student.”

I looked around and was relieved that, as usual, no one was paying attention.

“I’ve got this,” Vivienne said before bolting out the door.

Ms. Mueller’s face contorted several times as if she were putting up a fight to regain her body from possession.

Then the fire alarm went off. Vivienne had found the perfect way to clear the building.

Desks and chairs scraped the floor as students emptied their desks and left the room in record time. The three of us, however, remained perfectly still, eyes fixed on Ms. Mueller. I’m not sure I’d ever given her my full attention before, but she sure had it now.

Vivienne returned, and once the room cleared completely, Alden took several steps toward Ms. Mueller, who stiffened and spoke in a horrible male voice. “Were we discussing the Civil War? We know a lot about the Civil War, don’t we, Speaker 102?”

Undoubtedly, the Malevolent was Smith. I felt Lenzi’s fear, but she didn’t show it. “We do. Leave the human’s body now.”

Ms. Mueller threw her head back and laughed in the voice of a man.

Fire alarm still screaming from the hallway, Alden shut and locked the door, then pulled out his phone and furiously punched buttons.

Far faster than Ms. Mueller’s usual waddle, the Malevolent bolted toward Alden, stopping just out of reach. “Calling backup? No need. This won’t take long.”

“Don’t you dare hurt her,” Lenzi shouted over the shrill clanging of the fire alarm.

Its evil laugh filled the air. “What, like this?” Ms. Mueller picked up a pair of long scissors from the podium, splayed her fingers over the top, and stabbed the blades through her hand, pinning it to the podium. Her face contorted into a grimace of pain, then the grin returned. “Mmm. The sweet pain of having a body again.”

The fire alarm fell silent.

“What do you want?” Vivienne asked, striding toward the podium. Alden grabbed her by the elbow and pulled her back. She shook him off. “Cut it out! I’m not scared of a ghoul that has to stuff himself in the body of a middle-aged history teacher because he’s too weak to take me on.”

Alden and Lenzi looked horrified, and Lenzi transmitted complete alarm. I wasn’t sure if Vivienne was bluffing, or if she knew more than I did about the powers of Malevolents and possession in general. She certainly appeared confident, and her emotions flickered among excitement, anger, and occasionally, fear.

“Why didn’t you take one of the students? You could have done some damage in one of those football players’ bodies.” Vivienne paced in front of the podium. “Because they were too strong and you couldn’t get in. You knew that.”

The demon growled and yanked on the scissors that were plunged deep into the wood of the podium.

“Ha! You’re too weak to even free yourself from your own stunt.” Vivienne did a little pirouette and laughed. “Caught ya! If I were you, I’d worry about that poor woman’s body bleeding out with you in it. Wouldn’t that end it for you? Don’t you have to skedaddle before the heart stops beating?”

Ms. Mueller’s eyes opened wide, then narrowed into a menacing glare.

“Stay ready, Paul,” Alden said.

Vivienne strolled closer to the podium. “If the big bad ghouly here were able to invade a Speaker, he’d have tried that first.” She put her hands on either side of the podium facing Ms. Mueller. “Isn’t that right, loser?” The demon growled and made a swipe at her with its free hand, and Vivienne ducked.

After she was out of reach, she laughed again. “I bet that used a ton of energy. Are you done yet?”

“Nicaragua Smith will never be done,” he howled from Ms. Mueller’s mouth.

Rage rolled through her. “You’re Smith? No way. You’re telling me that Smith is just a weak demon wearing a polyester pantsuit?” She shook her head. “You’re not at all what I expected.”

The demon leaned forward. “Who are you?”

Vivienne’s grin gave me chills. It was as terrifying as the demon’s had been. “I’m your worst nightmare. I’m the person who’s going to dispatch you to hell, where you belong.”

Ms. Mueller’s body became very still. Her head tilted as Smith studied Vivienne through her eyes. “I’ve wronged you somehow, haven’t I?”

“Yeah. And it was a big mistake on your part.”

He stretched the lips in an unnatural smile. “You seek revenge. Revenge for something so insignificant, I don’t even remember it.”

Vivienne’s calm cracked just a bit. He was trying to weaken her—perhaps to make the jump into her body. “
I
remember it.” Her voice trembled slightly.

Crap.
I had to do something, but had no idea what.

“Well, you’ll have to wait,” Smith said from Ms. Mueller’s body. “I’m here for something else.”

“Now, Alden,” Lenzi said. Alden sat and went still as his soul entered Lenzi’s body.

At least Lenzi was safe. I gave Vivienne a pleading look. Even though her in-your-face approach seemed to be working, I didn’t think she was up to taking Smith on from the inside. “Now?”

“Don’t you dare, Paul,” she said, eyes on Mueller.

There wasn’t as much blood from the wound through Ms. Mueller’s hand as I’d have thought there would be, but she looked awful. Her skin was pasty and slick with sweat.

“Ah, predictable as always, Speaker 102,” Smith said to Lenzi, then he turned Mueller’s gaze to Vivienne. “You, however, are not. You are far more entertaining.”

“Oh, really? Well, you’re boring me, Smith. Even Mule Face Mueller is more interesting than you, and that says a lot.”

Smith growled in rage, baring Ms. Mueller’s teeth. Vivienne laughed. “Hey, you’ve got something right”—she pointed at the space between her front teeth—“there.”

Smith made an effort to remove the scissors again, but only caused the wound to bleed more.

Never taking her eyes off of Smith, Lenzi moved closer to me. “Alden says we need to simply hold steady and wait for backup.”

“I don’t want to wait for backup,” Vivienne said.

Lenzi shook her head. “No.”

Ms. Mueller’s eyes looked unfocused. Her body was about to pass out.

Vivienne pulled her eyes away from Smith and faced Lenzi. There was no anger coming from her at all, which was a relief. “I don’t know you, Lenzi. I don’t know anything about you, but there is no way you want that demon gone as much as I do. I’m going to get rid of him for good, and I think I can do it right now.”

Ms. Mueller had put her head down on the podium, but her eyes were open.

“No,” Lenzi said. “Both Alden and I say no.”

“Yes,” I said back. I trusted Vivienne and was going to back her up no matter what. “I think we need to trust Vivienne’s intuition on this one,” I said. “So far, so good.”

My phone buzzed. “Hey, Junior. I’m outside the door. Let me in quick.”

I strode to the door and let Race in, locking it behind him. Race took a look around and figured out the state of things quickly. Lenzi was protected, and Mueller was possessed and immobilized by the scissors, blood slowly falling one drop at a time from the corner of the podium to the floor.

“Do you want me to cover or soul-share?” he asked.

“Leave me open,” Vivienne said. “Come on, Smith. What are you waiting for? Come on in and talk to me.”

The body slumped over the podium and didn’t move.

“Well, crap,” Vivienne grumbled. “The chicken took off.”

I didn’t know whether to be relieved or disappointed for her. At least she was safe.

Race nudged Ms. Mueller’s shoulder, and she didn’t react.

Lenzi sat in the desk next to Alden. “I think you’re right. I think he’s gone, which is the best possible outcome.”

“No, it’s not.” Vivienne’s anger surged. “The best possible outcome is dispatching him. He got away.”

Race put his fingers on Ms. Mueller’s neck and studied his watch. “She’s okay.” He checked out the scissors and made a face. “That’s nasty. And it’s going to bleed like crazy when the scissors are pulled out. The pressure is keeping it from gushing.” He shuddered. “Poor woman.”

Vivienne joined him where Ms. Mueller lay slumped across the podium. “Yuck. Her notes are under her hand.” She stepped closer. “I hope this means we get to move on to a different subject.”

“Out, Alden,” Lenzi said, placing her hand on his shoulder. His body gasped to life, and he took his phone from her.

Race walked over to the door and peeked out the narrow window at the side. “Wonder when the medical team will be here.”

“According to their texts, any minute,” Alden said, looking up from his phone. “Charles is coming too. This one is a mess, because it’s a teacher. They’re going to have to do a lot of fancy footwork to keep it secret.”

Race leaned back against the door. “I guess it all revolves on how cooperative the teacher is.”

“And how much money the IC has donated to the school,” Lenzi added.

“The IC is its biggest benefactor. I imagine they hold some clout,” Alden said.

Vivienne leaned closer to Ms. Mueller, peering at the notes. “I don’t think she deviates from these during class. I bet if we copied them, we could ace her tests.” She fingered the edge of a page.

Quicker than I imagined possible, Ms. Mueller’s free hand shot out and grabbed Vivienne by the throat. “Stupid little girl. Your hate makes you strong, but you can’t even begin to fathom hate like mine,” Smith said from Ms. Mueller’s body. “You asked what I wanted. I want revenge.”

“Now, Alden,” Lenzi whispered. I didn’t need to look back to know they had soul-shared again. Lenzi was safe, but Vivienne wasn’t and couldn’t even give the command to soul-share because she was being choked.

I had to do something. I charged the podium and knocked the entire thing over, Mueller and all, which caused Smith to turn loose of Vivienne’s neck. “Race! Protect Vivienne!” I shouted, grabbing Mueller’s free arm. “Vivienne, let him in.”

“Okay, Vivienne?” I heard Race say.

“Yes,” Vivienne responded. Then she cried out as Race poured his soul in her body.

Smith struggled underneath me, but wasn’t strong enough in Mueller’s weakened body to fight me off. It had all been an act, and he had probably planned to possess Lenzi or Vivienne after he finished his diatribe. He was certainly pissed I’d tackled him. In pushing the podium over, I’d dislodged the hand that had been stabbed to the wood, and blood was everywhere. The blades were still through the hand, fingers wrapped around them.