Aether reached out and took the younger man in his arms, like a father would comfort a son. “Easy. It’s okay.” He looked at me, and his face was still half-hidden in shadows. “We don’t know.”
I pursed my lips and felt my wings unfurl. Ooh . . . sometimes they had a mind of their own. “Wait . . . you’re a Revenant. Sharper hearing, seeing, senses period, right? Like a vampire. And someone snuck up on you, killed you, drained your blood, and carved symbols into your flesh, and you never knew who?”
Aether shook his head. “Whoever it was drugged my host and I was blinded. Before we could regain any sensation, the blood was drained, and my host’s body died, though my presence kept his soul here with me. But without his eyes, as you can see”—he looked around—“we are in darkness. I can only tell you that it wasn’t anything I’d ever encountered before.”
“Meaning it wasn’t from the Abysmal plane?”
“Nothing that I had ever known, but then I have encountered several of his beastly creations before.” Aether turned his head in the shadow as if to look away. “He himself is an abomination.”
Well, this was a dead end. Literally. Whoever or whatever was attacking was making sure it wasn’t identifiable. But still . . . to sneak up on a Revenant? I somehow got the idea that wasn’t as easy as it sounds. At least not with someone as old as Aether. And I could sense that age while I stood in front of him. “Are we inside the body?”
Aether nodded. “You can release us. I can sense that.” He paused. “But there is a price.”
Hooo boy.
“I released Mialani’s soul Wednesday—and just woke up today. I’m not sure how well I’ll be able to release the two of you.”
“It’s not that kind of price.” Aether moved closer, and I took an involuntary step back. He scared the crap out of me there in the weird funky golden darkness that I was illuminating.
“I have an idea of what kind of price,” I said, and held up my other hand. I felt and heard my wings rustle. “Damnation and all that.”
“No,” Aether said, and stopped coming closer. “That’s not what I mean. The price is not for you to pay, but for me.” There was a pause, and I felt somehow that he was coming to a decision. “What I can tell you about who did this is what I sensed, but not what I know. The presence was not familiar, but it did have the taste of something Abysmal, as well as Ethereal.”
Well, I hadn’t expected to hear that. “Both? Something in between?”
He nodded. “And it was terrifying. It wasn’t anything in physical form, but something that entered my host’s dreams. It paralyzed us, wrapped itself around us until this darkness came, and we were trapped. I knew then there was no escaping this body, and so we have been here ever since.”
Was part of both planes, was Abysmal and was Ethereal. That much confused me. But what bothered me was the description of how it wrapped itself around them. Reminded me of the image of that thing me and TC had encountered that Wednesday morning. “Uhm . . . did it look like hair?”
Aether tilted his head to the side. “I’m sorry?”
Wow, Revenants were polite. Wonder where TC went wrong.
“Did it look like a huge wig of long hair when it wrapped itself around you?”
“I don’t know,” Aether said. “I couldn’t see it. Neither could my host. But I could sense magic. Strong magic. Even now, it’s eating its way through the flesh to us.”
Hrm . . .
I thought of something he said. “What do you mean the price is for you to pay?”
He came toward me again and stopped. I held my ground this time. “It means I must lose this world.” And his voice was sad inside my head. So very heavy with regret. “I won’t be able to return to it. My essence will become part of the darkness of the Abysmal, and I will no longer taste the fruits of this world, know the desires of the human heart, or be able to feel a lover’s caress on my lips. But—I will remember it.”
I felt my breath catch in my throat as I understood what he meant. For him, this was the end of the ride. “And your host?”
“He will ascend as he was meant to do.” Aether turned and held the smaller man close to him. “As they were all meant to do.” He pulled back from him and touched the smaller one’s chin. I could feel the fear vanish. “But I will remember him. I will remember all of them.”
Oh, this was intolerably sappy. I held up my hands and waved. “Wait, wait, wait. Are you telling me that you’ll return to Abysmal goo, and he’ll move on?”
“Yes.”
“You can’t just pop out and continue as you were before?”
“No. Not as the spell is written now.” He looked at me, and I could almost make out sad golden eyes. “I don’t count this as a curse, Wraith. I count this as a blessing. If this spell were correct, I would no longer exist, and neither would my host. Please”—he sighed—“release us both.”
Oh boy.
And here’s where it got sticky for me. I wanted to, and I was scared to. And could anyone blame me?
But no matter how scared I was, I knew there was no way I was going to run away from it. I couldn’t. And so I’d lose a few more days. Bah. I needed the sleep.
With my left hand still out, the pattern of TC’s hand grew brighter, intensified the golden light. Aether pulled his host closer and pointed to my hand. “Touch her—and the pain will vanish.”
Hesitantly, he came to the light, and he was an exact replica of the man carved on the table. He looked at me with sadness and took my hand. There was a sharp intense pain in my gut that grew, a stabbing agony—
Which dissipated the second Aether touched my hand as well. In fact, the pain disappeared altogether just as the soul vanished, and there was nothing there but Aether and me, holding hands.
“You would have been a great Irin, Zoë Martinique,” he said in a soft voice. “I would have loved to—” And then his eyes widened as if a great secret was revealed to him. “Oh no . . . that can’t be. You can’t let him do that! You must get away from—”
A huge bright golden light blinded and deafened me as he disappeared, and abruptly I was tossed backward and landed on a cold, hard floor. I looked up, blinking at the fluorescent lights, and recognized the smells. Morgue again.
TC was hovering over me, as were Joe and Rhonda.
“She’s human again,” Rhonda said.
Joe nodded.
You okay?
“No,” I said aloud, as it felt like every nerve ending in my body had gone to sleep. That whole pins-and-needles thing. “But it’s not like it was with Mialani.”
“Of course not,” TC said as he offered his hand and pulled me up. His touch made the tingling sensation go away as I stood. Jason and Lex were near the body and I didn’t need to take a peek inside to know the Symbiont and the host’s soul were gone. Lex was sobbing. Jason looked . . . worried.
Why does he look like that?
“Why is that?” Rhonda was looking at TC, her stance a bit tense as she faced him. “Why was it so bad for her to release the ghoul and not the First Born?”
“Two different somethings,” TC said as he stepped back. He was looking at me, and I realized I wasn’t in Wraith form anymore but just plain Zoë. “Ghouls are abominations. Souls trapped within dying bodies, and the blood of a Revenant is what keeps it together. Otherwise, it would break down like it was meant to do.” He looked at Rhonda with his shaded eyes. “But a Revenant possesses the body, envelops it and fuses with the host soul. It’s not what you would call natural for this world, but more natural than the ghouls. Releasing the ghoul causes loss of essence from the Wraith. But release of the First Born . . .” He looked at me and gave me a half smile. “The Revenant gives up a part of itself to her for that release. As well as its place in this physical world.” He glanced back at Lex. “Oh, knock it off, Yamato. Aether can’t hear you anymore.”
“Fuck you.
You’re
the abomination. The betrayer.”
I sighed.
This is gonna be a long night.
Joe moved into my line of sight. Ah, a cooling sight for a starving girl.
You learn anything?
And always the detective.
I shook my head. “No. Aether said they didn’t see the attacker. It came while they slept and wrapped itself around them. They were locked in unconsciousness while it was happening.” Or that was how I interpreted it.
Lex wiped at her face. “So they couldn’t tell you
what
it was?”
“He said it was both,” I looked at Lex. “Abysmal and Ethereal.”
That got everyone’s attention. In fact, they were all staring at me. “What?”
“Zoë,” Rhonda stepped forward. “There aren’t many creatures from both planes. That contain both essences.” She glanced at Joe. “There are two. There’s you.”
Uh-oh.
“And there’s one other,” TC said with gritted teeth. “That damned book boy.”
Oh hell.
Dags.
15
WE
didn’t talk much more in the morgue after that. Especially since the body started releasing a whole bunch of toxic gases on its way to goo-land. Once the Revenant and the host’s soul were gone, there was nothing keeping it together, so back to its primordial elements it went.
Gross.
We drove back home in silence. The moon was up high in the clear sky over Atlanta. I craned my neck in the backseat to get a better look at it. The clock in Jason’s dash read 9:42. My thoughts strayed to Daniel.
Where is he?
What is he doing?
Is he running for his life, hurting other people? Or himself?
Have they caught him yet?
Does he still hate me so much to want me dead?
I think most people would see me as stupid to be worrying about a crazy guy. Especially one who had tried to kill me and succeeded in killing his friend and boss. But Daniel’s insanity was partially my fault. I’d brought him into my life, and he’d paid that price. And when I thought about Dags and what he’d gone through, I had to wonder if his knowing me had anything to do with the situation in which he found himself.
Being a book and all.
But then again, he was shooting light out of his palms before we ever met at Fadó’s.
Whatever was happening, I refused to believe it had anything to do with him. It wasn’t possible. The girls—his Familiars, Alice and Maureen—would never allow it.
But if that was true . . . then why had Alice come to me in that dream?
The argument with Lex in the morgue before we left returned as well. And I really wanted to hammer Joe in the head for being so damned loyal to Lex.
“Oh . . .” And her eyes had lit up. “I remember him. He shone brightly the last time we met. But—I never understood why. Why is he like that?” she’d asked after I had blurted out his name.
Rhonda had remained quiet, as had I. But Joe?
What an idiot.
He’d relayed the state of Dags’s existence to Lex the same way he had to me. It was obvious Yamato could hear him. And I could hear him as well, like overhearing a conversation in the next room.
Dags was accidentally made into a secondary watcher during a botched ritual by a magician named Bonville. He possesses two Familiars who balance out the Abysmal and the Ethereal. Bonville owned a Grimoire passed down in his wife’s family. But there was a nasty group of people called L-6, who wanted that Grimoire, led by a man named Rodriguez. He learned that Rhonda had the book in safekeeping and kidnapped Dags as leverage. Dags was tortured violently, and, in order to save his life . . .
Joe had sighed, and I could sense he was still a bit put out by what Rhonda had done.
To save his life, Rhonda used one of the spells in the Grimoire to fuse Dags with the book.
Lex’s eyes had widened as she looked at Rhonda with an almost renewed awe. “You are truly a witch. A bender of things. Wicce.”
Rhonda had looked uncomfortable.
“This is interesting,” Jason had said, rubbing one finger against his jawline. “This individual has a Grimoire fused into his soul’s grounding to his physical body.”
Rhonda had nodded. “I thought it was the best place to hide it from Rodriguez at the time.”
At the time, yeah, but a month or so later, that man, Rodriguez, had exploded in my mom’s bedroom, with TC’s help, from the inside out.
I had
not
liked cleaning that mess up.
Ew.
Jason had moved closer to Rhonda. “Does he have access to the spells?”
“I think he does.” She had looked at him. “Oh, Jason, you don’t think this spell is in that Grimoire, do you?”
He’d shrugged. “We’d need to find out. Clear his name.”
“I want him,” Lex had said as she’d come to stand by Jason. “I will take the book.”
“No, you won’t,” I’d heard myself say.
Ooh. Whups. That was my outside voice.
“You won’t touch a hair on his head. Got it?”
And where exactly is this bravado coming from?
She’d glared at me. “If I find he is responsible for this, I will do as I please.”
“No.” I’d moved closer to her and shifted, the Wraith coming to the front. I’d been a little worried at how easy this was getting to be. “You touch him, you deal with me.”
Jason had easily slid between us. And I had to admit we’d probably looked like odd opponents. Lex with her beautiful Asian Amazonian looks and me with my weird, gray, winged self. “Both of you, stop it. We have no proof this man is involved at all. We will simply set up an appointment to see him and find out.” He’d turned to Rhonda. “He works for you, right?”
She’d nodded. But I had seen in her face she wasn’t happy.
That was when we’d left. Noxious gas. Left Lex to clean it up.
Good riddance.
Even as we entered the house, I was still feeling a bit conflicted about Dags. Unsure what was happening. The description Aether had given me sounded a lot like that thing TC and I had encountered. But TC had been able to diffuse it. Send it on its way. And he was a much younger Symbiont than Aether. But then, TC had never joined with a human soul.