Out Of The Dark (14 page)

I knew in an instant that was my fault.
Spirits, ghosts, astral beings like my-self--they all cause issues
with electronic gizmos. So my being here out of body was a bad
idea. But I was glad I'd come--and seeing Cooper stay here way past
his duty was a nice touch.

"Really? You sure his bubble-headed
girlfriend isn't around? She has a knack for screwing things
up."

Or maybe not.

I shot him a bird and moved around him, not
wanting any part of what he was thinking, which of course happens
if I walk through someone.

Once out in the hallway I saw him.

Standing by the nurse's station--a metal
clipboard in his hand.

Bonville.

*****

CHAPTER TEN

He hadn't seen me yet--and though I was
Wraith I was certain he
would
see me unless I moved. But I
was too curious as to whose chart he was looking at.

The presence behind me was startling, but not
unexpected. "It's your lover's chart--" TC said on the wind.

Lover's. Hah. That term indicated there was
sex involved between the two parties. I could only deduct that the
Archer had no idea Daniel and I hadn't--

"Oh?"

Well shit.

"Are your memories of our time together
returning?"

Shut. The hell. Up.

Great. I could hear that fucker's laughter
all over the hospital. I could also see my presence was garnering
unwanted attention. Hospitals house--well--souls. Spirits. Ghosts.
Those what don't realize they iz dead. And those souls were
starting to peak out of all sorts of places. Some were in color,
some in pastels, and lots were in black and white much like
Maddox's son. There were always the whispy things I saw while
Wraith--those pieces of Abysmal-Ethereal-Astral whatsis that looked
like the black smoke after blowing out a candle. I had no idea what
they were, but they were always around on the edges of things.

Bonville looked up and narrowed his eyes in
our direction. Can he see us?

"No, but he knows something's here. And in a
second he'll--"

A cell phone rang. I recognized the theme as
a well known tune by 3 Doors Down. Bonville reached inside his
jacket pocket and pulled his phone out. I felt TC's hand on my
shoulder and I batted it away.
No touchy!

"Yes--that's excellent news--no, I don't want
a lot of them around. I don't trust them--especially since I can't
tell them apart anymore. Cleanse the area and proceed. I want him
brought directly into the chamber--no, I'm not crazy. I can use his
power to destroy anything it sends after me. I'll be right
there--just get him away from that witch!" There was actual spittle
on his chin before he slammed the phone closed, turned and marched
to the elevators.

Witch? Was he talking about Dags away from
mom? I mean, 'cause on occasion, I've called her a few choice names
myself.

"She's not the only one," the Archer said and
he materialized to my right. He looked even more washed out in the
bright fluorescent hospital light. Not so--scary.

Should I follow him?

"No," he turned to me. His ink-black shades
were back on. "You won't be able to. You'll need to get to him
another way."

I burned past the Archer to the emergency
exit and took the stairs as fast as I could. It was more time
consuming than the elevator, but at least this way I was getting my
astral workout. Once on the landing I went through the door (yow,
metal!) and made my way back to the parking lot, avoiding any
contact with any of the multitude of ghosts that crowded into my
way.

TC was at my car when I arrived. I stopped
and frowned. How did he--

"I don't have to run. Or take a bus, or a
train, or a plane--"

Bastard
.

I sieved into the car and easily back into my
body. I righted the seat, putting me back in front of the steering
wheel and would have given a full scream when I noticed TC in the
passenger's seat beside me.
Stop doing that!

"Drive."

Ass wipe.

"Dumbass."

Ah! Get out of my car!

"You need me. Without me the Betrayer will
succeed in--"

Hey.

He paused. "Yes?"

Does the Betrayer have a Symbiont?

The Archer abruptly vanished out of my car.
Was it something I said? No matter--if I still had my voice I would
be calling mom real fast in order to warn them that I thought
Bonville's henchmen--be they physical peoples or Shadow
Peoples--were on their way if not already there.

I drove like a bat out of the oven getting
back to mom's. All was dark from the outside--and it looked real
quiet too. It was close to two-thirty spook time by Elizabeth's
digital. I pulled up with the lights off and then cut the engine. I
could either go in physical and of course, if I got jumped, there
was no way for me to warn anybody verbally.

Or go in Wraith where I seemed to have the
advantage.

Bing, bing, bing. Wraith!

I leaned the chair back again and locked the
doors before sieving out--I also checked my watch--or rather my
wrist since I have no idea where my watch was. I could only guess I
had about three and a half hours available to me. Give or take what
I'd used in the hospital. I hadn't rested enough to completely
restart the clock. What did worry me was the cold. It was already
nearing thirty degrees, and I couldn't leave the heater running.
Forget a blanket--there wasn't one in the car. All I had was my
pea-coat.

Nothing felt oogie as I moved up to the front
porch. There were the usual creepies outside the house, little
buggers mom's wards wouldn't let in--so I was certain the ward
itself was still intact. I moved through the door (yay wood!) and
sensed someone to my left through the beaded curtain. I moved
through it and saw that someone was sound asleep on the couch. That
had to be Dags. That was good.

Two more checks upstairs showed that Mom and
Rhonda were asleep too.

So--what had Bonville been talking about?

"Zoë?"

Yikes! I jumped and spun, turning to see
Steve standing in the kitchen.
Oh god don't
do
that.

"Why are you here--" he pointed to me. "Like
that? Where is your body?"

In the car.
I told him the story as
briefly as I could think it and he nodded.

"There was a bit of a fracas earlier at the
ward's edges--they held so I didn't wake Nona or Rhonda. You think
Bonville will come here?"

I shrugged and moved into the Botanica-- I
wanted to find those journals and re-read a few parts. Because
something wasn't gelling for me.

As I passed the couch every door and window
in the house blew open. I crouched low as Steve yelled out. Dags
sat up abruptly--his hands out, palms up--and the circles on his
palms were lit up like fluorescent lamps in the dark.

He started to fade as well, just at he had in
the atrium.

No fair! He was in the house!

The sound of thunder echoed above me until I
realized it was footsteps. Rhonda burst out of the kitchen area, a
stick in her hands. Nona was right behind her.

"What happened!" Rhonda screamed out. Wind
like a nor'easter gale whipped everything in the house up in a
frenzy. "What's going on?"

"They broke through," screamed Nona. Her eyes
found me and then they widened to the size of oranges. "Zoë, behind
you!"

But I already knew he was there. I knew he'd
been waiting on this. I grabbed Dags' wrist as TC grabbed me and
together all three of us vanished from the house on Euclid in
Little Five Points.

No one had to tell me we were in the Abysmal
Plane. I could feel it all around me. And what frightened me more
was that I--well--I enjoyed how it felt. Warm and peaceful, and I
could feel strength flooding every fiber of my being.

But was it only because I was Wraith?

I heard Dags screaming beside me and I pulled
him to me, becoming as solid as I could to protect him from
whatever it was that destroyed physical bodies. If we didn't find a
way out of here quick, Dags wouldn't survive, and I was terrified
he too would become a Shadow.

I opened my eyes to see a daisy-covered
plain--hills and valleys out of a movie were sprawled on either
side of me. I could see a small village to my left and another to
my right. White smoke billowed from a chimney or two in both.
Flowers sprouted up beside where I knelt with the writhing man in
my arms.

Mental Note:
reread Big Book of
Everything--notate description of Abysmal is WRONG!

I looked down at him and he was looking up at
me with pain-filled eyes.

"Z-zoë?" he was shaking. It felt like the
sort of shake I always got when I had a fever--the kind I couldn't
stop, the kind that chattered my teeth. His dark eyes were turning
white. Dead white. "You--you l-look different."

"Just stay with me," I said.

He smiled. "I--I heard you--you
sp-spoke."

I wasn't able to answer him, as we were
abruptly somewhere else. It was quiet, and the smell of fresh
flowers was replaced by that of tangy incense and the metallic tang
of a symbiont. I heard voices too, and whispers all around us. The
voices sounded a bit--surprised.

"What is it?"

"I don't know--could it be something from the
otherworld?"

"It is a demon! We should contain it!"

"It is contained, you idiot," came a voice
with much more authority than the whispers. "We've built a
protective circle around it."

Oh? I opened my eyes and looked up. Dags and
I were surrounded by a circle of people in black robes (oh for
crying out loud), their hoods pulled forward so I couldn't really
see much of their faces except their noses and mouths and they were
all wearing Phantom of the Opera masks. Just behind them I could
make out either rafters or maybe a support beams for a ceiling.
Considering it felt like we were underground--I was going for
basement.

I looked down at Dags. He was unconscious and
I could sense his soul teetering on the edge of life. I don't know
how I knew it--but that brush with the Abysmal (and it had
flowers!) had somehow tainted or poisoned his body--I didn't know
which. I did know it hadn't been a good thing for him to go
through--not in a physical body. And no matter what happened, I was
not going to allow anyone to turn him into a Shadow.

So there. That was my righteous Southern
woman declaration for the month, ala Julia Sugarbaker (bless her
heart and rest her soul).

That's when I spotted Bonville. He was in a
black robe but he wasn't masked. His robe was all silky and smooth,
while the others looked like dime-store knock offs. I laid Dags
down on the ground, also taking note of the huge-ass pentagram
beneath us on a wood floor, and stood up.

Oddly enough I felt--pretty good.

Bonville held up his right hand. "I command
you, oh demon, to be cast out of this circle so that we may
continue our ritual."

I don't know what he expected to happen--but
it didn't. The others looked a little flummoxed as well. And though
I sensed power behind the casting--I sensed it was missing
something
.

Ah! The book!

He didn't have his big book anymore, 'cause
Nona and Rhonda did.

Abruptly the Archer appeared in front me,
between myself and Bonville. And I wasn't the only one that could
see him.
Everyone
could. In the basement like this, under
all the candle-light, he looked pretty impressive.

"She's wearing bunny slippers," someone
muttered.

Yes I am--wanna make something of it?

Mental Note:
bunny slippers are
cool.

I also noticed TC had the book and the
documents in his hands. Now how did he get hold of those?

He held the documents up, and Bonville looked
a little bit more than frightened. "You recognize these, Allard?
The documents you made all of these people sign?"

All of these people--I looked at the group.
The Cruorem. They were all looking at each other.

Allard Bonville nodded. "I do. They gave me
their loyalty--"

"No, Allard," TC's voice boomed. "You sold
their souls so that you could become immortal."

Well that was a lowering of the boom. I could
feel a huge mix of anger, confusion, disbelief and fear running
rampant around the room. Oh Mr. Bonville was in trouble now.
Neener nee
.

"No--what are you talking about? My
wife--"

"And what happened to those souls that you
were tired of?" TC looked like he was having a good time here--but
I was waiting for all these Shadow Folk to come like he told me
they would. "You pushed them physically into the Abysmal plane,
making them unpalatable for your lord and master."

I frowned. Huh?

Bonville had his hands out. "But I was only
doing what she told me to do. Please, don't take the promise from
me now--I'll die."

TC smiled. And I didn't like that smile.

"Then are you finally willing to offer her to
me?"

Huh? Who?

Bonville looked terrified. "She'll kill me--I
can't do that. She'll kill me!"

She? Who was she?

Why did I have the feeling I'd been lied
to--
again
? Damn TC!

The book in TC's hand abruptly took flight
and floated to Bonville. It opened and the pages flipped until it
remained still and hovered before his face. "Bring her to me."

"No--" Bonville shook his head. "I only
wanted to summon her to find this," he nodded to the book floating
in front of him. "You don't need her--"

"Bring. Her. To. Me."

The command in that voice made my head
spin.

Bonville looked at T.C. "But the
Shadows…he'll send the Shadows..."

"Do it."

What the fucking
hell
was going
on--

And abruptly the whole room's temperature
dropped. Bonville was reciting something from the book. There was a
swirl inside the circle and every one of the people there were
still in their places. I could tell from their expressions--what I
could see--they were powerless to move.