Oh no he di’int.
I shifted right there, coming to my full height, and looked down at him. And to my surprise, he held his ground. Yeah, I could see fear behind those dark eyes, but he wasn’t going to let me scare him. I went incorporeal and slipped from his grasp. “You best watch who you threaten, Mr. Gunter.”
He kept his gaze level. “Not a who. But a
thing
.” And with that, he turned and left me standing there.
Luckily we had no audience. Just me. Him. The hall.
Pissed did not describe how I was feeling . . . so I shot straight up through the roof of the house and up to the darkening sky.
I think . . . for the first time in my life . . . I’d encountered a racial threat.
AFTER
that, I stayed out of their way. Didn’t see the point. Just stayed as Wraith and watched from above in the warehouse. It was a nice one, with a well-kept wooded area. Very private, with an electric fence. The perfect place for an ambush. And even if the person responsible didn’t get it at first, when they saw this place, they would surely think, well—
TRAP!
I would.
Sitting on the roof, I watched as trucks came and went. Furniture—mostly chairs. Even food. She was having it catered. Oh man. This was so not my idea of an exorcism. All I had to go on was watching
Constantine
or
The Exorcist
, and that was always the victim tied to a bed and priests in robes. Seeing this one performed should be interesting.
Even as I watched them come and go, I reached out through the city for some sign of Dags. Or Maureen or even Alice. Something. Some spark or sound that would let me know he was okay. Anxiety gnawed at my stomach, making it impossible to eat, or even sleep. I’d tried the nap thing as Joe suggested. Even lain down in the bed with him. He’d been asleep in seconds. Me?
Sigh.
Nothing. I couldn’t sit still, and I couldn’t keep moving. And all I could think about was Dags.
Daniel was out there, possibly being used again. The police were looking for him. Mastiff was heading up the investigation even though he knew there was more at work than a serial killer. He’d do his best to keep the cops away from the Society. But still . . .
TC appeared beside me, no longer dressed in his trench coat but in a black wife beater, to show off his muscles. Leather pants. Lots of studs. “You look like you could step into Woof’s and be right at home.” Woof’s was a local gay leather bar. Pretty nice place.
“The Eagle is more my style,” he said. “Your boy’s alive.”
I nearly fell off the roof as I stood up. “Where is he?”
“That I can’t say. He’s being protected somehow. A few Daemons saw him. Said he’s alive. Or that he’s breathing. But they can’t get to him.”
“But where? If they saw him, then they know the physical where.”
TC shook his head. “No. Sit down.”
I did.
“These Daemons were being used by something and placed in bodies to do the physical work. The bodies they possessed were completely empty, but they weren’t allowed to keep them. So they were used, then tossed away, which leads me to believe what we’re dealing with is pretty bad-ass that it can use and control like that. Multitasking Abysmal creatures ain’t a picnic, luv.”
“Phantasm?”
To my surprise he shook his head. “No. I don’t think so. I mean yeah I’ll bet anything he’s pulling the strings, but what’s working here on the physical plane . . .” He snapped his fingers. “That night you and I were training. The hairy thing.”
“Yeah.”
“It’s got something to do with that.”
“How do you know?”
He grinned. “Because I’m a fucking genius. One of the Daemons tried to explain it to me, what caught it and used it. He said it was the color of blood and that it wrapped itself around him. And that description was bothering me till just now.”
That was the same description I’d have given of that hairy thing that night. “And it turned that Fetch into goo.”
He nodded. “Pieces are starting to fall into place. Huh . . . I’m kinda liking this detective shit. But, for right now, I can only report he’s alive. Do I get something for that?”
“My thanks?”
“That bastard bit off a finger, Zoë. I don’t know why you think I give a shit about him.”
“Deal stands. Dags for the spell.” Though in truth I wasn’t really sure I had the power to give him that spell. I hated to think what’d happen if he delivered and I couldn’t.
“Kiss?”
“Fuck no.” I pushed at him and he grabbed my arm, pulling me closer to him. I started to struggle, not wanting him to go all tentacles and wrap himself around me.
But to my surprise . . . he didn’t. Instead, he pressed his lips to mine and gave me a very short, chaste smooch.
And then vanished.
WTF?
Nightfall came fast, and all the Revenants returned, many of them dressed to kill. What was it with being a First Born and a clotheshorse?
That is Jason’s influence, not mine,
Mephistopheles insisted, as I entered the warehouse.
Though I can’t say I’m not pleased by the feel of the fabric.
“Sensation is never lost on you, is it?”
Never.
But even as I smiled at the First Born’s comment, I stopped inside the doorway, my mouth dropping open. The warehouse had been utterly transformed in a single afternoon and evening!
A fourteen-foot drop ceiling had been installed, sealing off the high vaulted steel beams. Though I could sense there were Society agents all along those beams, dressed in black and out of sight. The floors were covered in padding and a soft beige carpet. To the right was an area for cocktails, coffee, and tea. A bartender wiped everything down. To my left was Loki, dressed in an all-white suit and blue shirt. His hair was extra spiky, and he wore several lip rings, sparkling in the newly installed fluorescent lights tucked inside the drop ceiling.
Okay,
The Exorcist
this was not.
“Feels more like a prom, doesn’t it?” Joe said as he came up behind me. He was dressed in his usual, only it was a blue plaid, and made of lightweight cotton, not flannel. “Rhonda’s boys usually do it up right.”
“Right?” I whispered. “They’re going to do an exorcism in here?”
“Oh. No.” He pointed to a set of closed, peacock-design stained-glass doors. “Through there.”
We moved together through the doors. And prom turned into
Carrie
, real fast.
There was no carpet in there. The floor had been cleaned but not covered, exposing concrete. In the center of the room was a table, where Lex’s body lay quietly beneath a red sheet. I could smell the chemicals keeping her body from decomposing—which was a key. A natural progression since the human soul was gone. But for the First Born?
Around the table sat a smaller group of tables, and on those were candles of white, red, and black. A thurible for charcoal and incense. Matches, and a whole array of odd-looking things in jars.
“Is all this Aleister Crowley stuff necessary?” I said.
“Dunno.” Joe shrugged. I noticed he had his gun and holster on. “I’m more of a shoot first and
then
mumble the incantation kinda guy.”
He put a hand on my shoulder and pointed to the only other exit. Double doors to the left. We went through those and got a grand shot of more woods. Floodlights illuminated the trees around us. “There are snipers all through these woods, on the roof, and in the roof. So, if something comes in, they’ll see it.”
Wow. I was a little impressed. Only a little ’cause, well, if this thing wasn’t solid, what were bullets going to do? I chewed on my thumb as he put a hand on my shoulder again. “We’ll find him. He’s fine.”
I nodded. “I think I know that. TC told me Dags was alive—but he doesn’t know where.”
“TC was here?”
I told Joe what the Symbiont had told me—leaving out the whole deal thing. I didn’t think that was anybody’s business but mine. “So we know he’s alive; we just don’t know where.”
“I’m surprised you haven’t heard anything from Alice or Maureen. And that bothers me. A lot.”
I nodded. “This whole thing does. Exorcising the magic? That sounds like a stretch.”
“It is a stretch.” He grinned. “It’s not real. It’s something they made up and put out there so whoever it is doing this will show up.”
I laughed.
Not real? Oh my God. Well, no wonder that room was like so overdone in the occult crap. I wouldn’t be surprised if a neon pentagram dropped from the ceiling as an advertisement.
“You okay?” he asked me suddenly.
I looked up at him. “I should ask you that. I mean, given everything you’ve been through in the past few days. But you seem a little . . . off?”
He shrugged. “Rhonda and I broke up. Kinda knew it wasn’t working. She’s in love with someone else.”
I wasn’t surprised to hear this. And I’d always wondered how their relationship had withstood events. “And you?”
“I’m in love too.” He gave me a half smile. “But I know when to back off, Zoë. I just can’t help wondering if I had stayed—not been so frightened by what I felt when I kissed you—”
I wondered if his toes curled as well.
Joe reached up and touched my cheek. His fingers were warm. “Maybe if I’d have made love to you first . . . maybe I could have been the one to pop your cherry.”
Uhm. Okay.
I was going to tell him that popping my cherry wasn’t the point of it. But before I could speak, his hand moved quickly from my cheek to my neck, squeezing hard. I couldn’t breathe and grabbed at his wrist, trying to break free. I looked up into his face and saw darkness there. And a slow, even red glow in his eyes.
PHANTASM!
30
OMG!
OMFG!
It’s here! In Joe’s body!
I knew it just as I knew I was going to be so superfucked if I didn’t do something!
I couldn’t cry out—the pressure on my neck was too hard. I started to shift, but he shook Joe’s head. “Uh, uh, uh. You become the Wraith now, and I send word to kill the Guardian.” He made a sad face. “And we wouldn’t want that to happen, now would we?”
Goddamnit!
I stopped the shift and continued to claw at his wrist. I couldn’t speak or scream. Why weren’t the snipers shooting at him. Didn’t they see I was being choked?
“Now, what we’re going to do, is walk together inside that warehouse, and we’re going to destroy that body. Understand?”
Destroy the body.
Why?
I could only nod. I felt my face turning red as I fought to get air into my lungs somehow. I called out on all channels HELP as loud as I could.
“You shouldn’t have done that—”
I heard the hiss and the thump first, before Joe tensed and released his grip on me. I fell backward, stumbling, then down on my ass as I looked up. An arrow was lodged in Joe’s neck, sticking out from the right side. He was scowling and reached up and yanked it out, tearing flesh. Joe was bleeding
again
. Damnit!
I wanted to shift, to take him out, but I wanted Dags to be safe. Oh God, he
had
to be safe.
Joe whirled and looked out at the woods. “I know you’re there . . . you fucking
bitch
!” he hissed, loud enough for me but not the snipers in the woods to hear.
Who? Who was there? I had my hand at my neck, coughing loudly, just on the verge of changing.
Changing is the only way to defeat it,
came TC’s voice in my head. He was nearby, in those woods. I could sense him.
But he’ll kill Dags!
It’s a bluff, stupid. He wants that book. Now attack!
That gave me the go-ahead I needed. I shifted from where I was and launched upward, grabbing Joe’s body beneath his arms, taking him higher and up and away from the others, my wings beating as fast as they could.
“I warned you!” Joe said, and reached around and grabbed at my wings. He was messing with my flying, trying to crash us. I screamed at him and managed to bring my knee up and nail him in the balls.
He reacted at first, as if Joe were in control, but then straightened and grinned, and said, “My turn.” He reared his head back and cracked mine with his. I saw stars, literally, as I lost control of him, and we both went crashing down into trees and woods. My wings caught on branches and were ripped before I remembered to pull them in close. I hit the ground hard and lay on my side, trying to straighten out my vision.
Now I knew how wrestlers felt when they got that forehead-to-forehead crack.
My God that hurts!
And then, of course, I fell fifty feet from the sky. I picked myself up and looked around, too late to realize that the bastard was coming at me. He tackled me where I stood, and together we rolled over stumps and rocks and smack into another pine tree. Can’t throw a rock in Georgia without hitting a pine, ya know.
I shoved him away, using whatever Wraith strength I could muster. Like this, we were both out of our element. Him more so since he was all Abysmal. I at least could interact on this side of the universe within my Wraith body. Though I’d suspected I have more power in the Abysmal plane, I’d been a bit chicken to go test it. I mean, what if I screwed up and got stuck there? No body to bring my ass back!
I wasn’t sure what a Phantasm’s limitations were when overshadowing a human. I was thinking not as strict as when they fuse with them. But I was also worried about hurting Joe. He was still human, and he’d already lost a lot of blood. And by the look of the wound on his neck, losing a shitload more.
By this time all the ruckus we were making had sounded an alarm. I could sense people in all directions coming at us, surrounding us there on the ground. I stood just as he did, and to my surprise, he fired some weird-ass purple light out of his left hand at me. Instinct took over, and I held up both my hands, blocking the attack with a blue shield of my own.