The Ravaging in Between (The Reanimation Files Book 3) (27 page)

“No, which was a failure in itself, but things went awry because the dead magic wanted to suck everything out, including Harvey’s soul, and I couldn’t let that happen.”

“Dead magic?” Tielle questioned sharply. I forgot she didn’t know this particular development.

“Call you tell her?” I asked Micah wearily. He nodded, then explained everything I had told him happened when Larry showed up at my door. When Micah was done, Tielle’s face showed another rare emotion: shock.

“The attempts on my life were all him,” I said. “I hadn’t given a thought to the fact that he could have crossed back over, but a necromancer circle was used to get rid of him so it makes sense.”

“Unbelievable,” Tielle said.

“Yeah, so that’s why I lost control with Harvey. But it wouldn’t have worked anyway.”

Tielle briefly closed her eyes and I could almost see the burden she was dealing with as though fifty tons were actually sitting on her shoulders.

“This doesn’t leave us with much hope that we can save these people…”

“I’m sorry—” I was cut off when one of the doctors came in calling for Tielle. She seemed a bit overly excited.

“Tielle, you have to see this. In a couple of the patients, the ghost energy is rescinding!”

“What?” That came from me, Micah, and Tielle, and was enough to make me sit up. The doctor, whose name tag read Emilia, handed Tielle a file.

“We were continuing our efforts to draw the ghost energy out with runes,” Emilia said. “Previously none of the patients had improved. Every time energy was drawn out, it was replenished almost immediately. But not this time. The drawn-out energy doesn’t replace itself. Mark and Beth seem to be recovering. It will take a while to get all the energy out, but they’re doing better now.”

“Remarkable, how—”

“Did you say Mark and Beth?” I asked, cutting Tielle off. “Mark Spatz? And what’s Beth’s last name?”

“Yes, Mark Spatz. And Beth Grimaldi,” Emilia said.

“And do you know the ghost who attacked Beth?”

“It was Larry Bianchi.”

I exchanged a look with Micah.

“That’s the woman whose husband Larry attacked when he was in Ethan’s body,” I said. “Did you know she was here?”

“No,” Micah replied. “I hadn’t been working down here in a few days. That’s why I wanted us to stop here before going to see Ethan.”

“She was brought in two days ago,” Tielle said.

“Larry must have attacked her before he set his sights on me,” I said. Something dawned on me. “Wait, when did Mark and Beth started to get better? Give as exact a time as possible.”

“Uh…” Emilia looked over Tielle’s shoulder at the file. “Yesterday around four-thirty p.m. They both started to improve around the same time.”

“Thanks, Emilia,” Tielle said. Emilia nodded, then left.

Four-thirty. That was right around the time I had sucked Larry’s ghost back down to oblivion, along with all the other ghosts he had brought along. That included Jack Grom, the ghost that had attacked Mark. I was starting to grow excited. It was just a theory, but with what I knew about where Jack and Larry’s ghost were now, along with the improvement shown in Mark and Beth, I felt as though getting excited was the right path to take. I slowly got off the couch and faced Micah and Tielle.

“I think I know how to save everyone.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

“I can feel this new power inside me, and it’s terrifying,” I said. “What I did to Larry and those other ghosts was horrible, but it can’t be a coincidence that at the same time he and Jack got channeled back to the In Between, Mark and Beth started getting better. If we send back the crossover ghosts, I have a strong feeling that Harvey and the others will start getting better too. Sending them back breaks the connection to their victims. That’s why the runes started to work; there was no longer a link between Beth and Larry, and Jack and Mark.”

As exciting as this was, it was also troubling for me personally. I now had proof that connections could be broken by crossing from one plane of existence to another. So that meant what Magda told me was definitely true; if Garrus crossed over here, the link between us would break and I’d be dead. But I could freak out more about that later.

“How exactly are we going to gather all the ghosts though?” Micah said. “The PTF has rounded up a good amount of them, but that’s definitely not all. We don’t even have all of the ghosts who attacked those people.”

“That’s where I come in,” I said. “If I unleash the dead magic, it will attract ghosts to me. Then you can have a group of necromancers with an open circle nearby to send them over.”

“Can’t you just channel them down?” Tielle asked. “It’s preferable to avoid opening another circle, due to the risks to the necromancers.”

“I could, but if I do so I would be sending a hearty meal to the ghost I’m connected to. He would get stronger, and they would cease to exist. The In Between is not a glorious place to be, but it still wouldn’t be right to end their existence that way. Larry I can live with, but I hated doing that to those other ghosts.”

“All right, I will make arrangements for a necromancer circle,” Tielle said.

“But what if it draws in other ghosts too?” Micah said. “And what if some of the crossover ghosts are further than your power can reach? You’ll be sending innocent ghosts to the In Between.”

“Well…” OK, so I hadn’t exactly thought this out a hundred percent.

“I know how it can be done,” Tielle spoke up. “We can use runes. Specifically, the runes that cover ghost agency buildings to draw ghosts in. We can channel this dead magic into those runes to make the call stronger. It should bring in the crossover ghosts even if they aren’t very near.”

I was getting excited again. “That sounds like it could work. And if I also attract other ghosts, you can temporarily store them in a rune to keep them out of the fray. Get the PTF involved and have them stationed around the area with runes.”

“A good idea,” Tielle said with a nod. I almost patted myself on the back. Compliments from Tielle were hard to come by.

“All right,” Micah said. “But which ghost agency do we use?”

“Because of our work and investigation there, the Paranormal Sector still has a hold over Affairs of the Dead,” Tielle said. “It would be the easiest location to acquire. I guarantee other ghost agencies would make us jump through hoops and waste time we don’t have to waste.”

“Affairs,” I said blandly. “I’m not so sure it would be that easy to use the building. Jacob McNabb is not my biggest fan. Even if you have some sway with the Sector, I don’t think Jacob will agree so easily.”

“We don’t have much of a choice,” Tielle said. “I will take care of approaching Jacob and securing the building.”

I was sure that would entail far more than a phone call and a politely stated request from Tielle. She would probably have to get documentation from the Paranormal Sector and march up to Affairs of the Dead with several PTF officers.

Hopefully, that would be enough for Jacob allow us to use the building and its runes. I didn’t relish the thought of Jacob witnessing what I would have to do, but he was far less important than saving people’s lives and getting the crossovers back where they belonged.

“OK, then the plan is settled, let’s get a move on.” I felt almost a hundred percent better after that ordeal inside Harvey’s body.

“Slow down Selene, this can’t happen today,” Tielle said. “We have a lot of preparation to do. I have to gather a team and explain this insane plan, then I have to secure Affairs of the Dead from Jacob and have my dead witches work on the building’s runes to they can alter them enough to do what we need. We likely won’t be able to do this until late tomorrow afternoon.”

“Oh.” I felt a little deflated, but realistically I couldn’t just expect something like this to come together at the snap of a finger.

“Go home and get some rest,” Tielle said. “We’ll be in touch.” She called a few of the doctors to come with her, and left the room to get her team assembled.

“I’ll drive you home,” Micah said, offering me his arm. I didn’t really need it but took it anyway.

“I was supposed to visit Ethan,” I said.

“Rest would be better,” Micah said. “You will need your strength.” As we walked to the elevator, I glanced at him. His jaw was tightly clenched.

“You’re nervous,” I said.

“I don’t like that you will once again be putting yourself in a dangerous position.”

“To clean up your mess…”

“Wha—” He stopped himself and shook his head. “You’re right,” he said, voice soft. We were in the elevator going down to the first floor. “For once I want to be the one who saves you. I want to be the one that makes everything all right.”

“I know you do.” I felt a tangle of complicated emotions rise. We didn’t say anything more as we headed out of the building to Micah’s car and he drove off.

Once we were back at my house, Micah walked me to my door.

“I’d stay with you, but Tielle is going to need me…”

“I know. I’ll see you tomorrow at the showdown.” I offered him a smile. Truth be told, I was tired of the perilous situations too, but once again there was no choice but to do the dangerous thing in order to save people.

Micah bent down and kissed my forehead. Heat pulsed through my body at the touch of his lips, and for a moment the tangle of confusion cracked and I wanted to pull him in and wrap myself around him the way I used to. The way I did when it felt like we fit. But I resisted.

Getting close to Micah, then pushing him away was not a habit I wanted to fall into. If we were ever truly going to mend, we had to start making the right decisions, and a make-out session right now was not one such decision. So instead, I just held myself still until he pulled back. He held my hand and gently pressed his thumb into my palm as those gray eyes bore into mine. His eyes reminded me of storm clouds; there was so much behind those eyes, words unsaid that I knew he was holding back for the same reasons I was.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said. He started to walk back to his car, but I called out to him and he turned back.

“You said one day you want to be the one who saves me,” I said, walking up to him. “And I want you to know that you already did. And I don’t mean from the Rot, although technically that did save me too. But you saved me long before that. When you looked past my surface, saw who I really was and loved me anyway…that saved me. Despite where we are now and how broken things feel, I need you to know that.”

Micah’s face was tight with emotion and his hand, which I’d been holding, was balled into a rigid fist. Finally, he made a sound of frustration, pulled his hand from mine, and looked away.

“God, Selene, I love you,” he said. “And I will never forgive myself for how much I caused us to break.” Then he turned and walked back to his car without looking at me again.

It hadn’t been my intention to make him feel hurt. But I suppose that was inevitable with us these days.

I sighed and headed inside to see what I could do about my instructions to rest.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Trying to rest just made me restless so I decided to do laundry instead. Luna wasn’t particularly happy about that because it meant that I was picking up a lot of the clothes that were strewn around my room, which had become fun zones for her. So she decided to pout about it and lay on the bed staring at me as I worked. She was so unhelpful.

Sorting my dirty clothes was pretty much like sorting through the harrowing adventures I’d been through since waking up from my coma. No one’s clothes should ever be in this bad a condition.

As I neared the bottom of my laundry basket, I pulled out a sweater.

“Ugh, bloodstains.” It was the sweater I’d been wearing when I was attacked in the Underground. The bloodstains on the front were a jarring reminder of Larry’s first attack. I’m not sure what caused me to throw this in my laundry basket instead of the garbage. There was no saving this sweater.

I was about to go toss it when I turned it over and saw a splatter of blood on the back of the shirt.

How’d that get there? I’d only been stabbed in the chest.

As I continued to stare at it, something began to dawn on me. That had been a very physical fight, where I’d drawn blood on my opponent. That’s what gave me pause.

The person who attacked me had not been a ghost wearing energy runes. It had been a warm-bodied, very much alive person. Plus, when Larry had shown up, he’d said “third time’s the charm,” which implied he had only tried to use others to attack me twice before: Jack Grom at the memorial ceremony, and the trio of idiots at the park. And he had only used crossover ghosts. Somehow I doubted he could have sought out a living thug for hire to do his bidding. All the consequences for attacking me would fall to them, and not the man who was already dead and couldn’t be persecuted. No one would take that risk.

So who had attacked me in the Underground and why? It was all so distant and blurry now that I couldn’t really think of anything helpful in pinpointing who that was. Was it a random attack, which wasn’t uncommon in the Underground, or had someone targeted me, which seemed like the more plausible scenario given my track record.

There was a good chance the blood belonged to my attacker. It had likely gotten there after I’d slashed her and she put me in that full Nelson.

Maybe I could get a DNA match and find the bitch.

And I knew exactly where to go to try and get help.

Looked like I’d be heading to Affairs of the Dead a day early.

* * *

I was hoping I could get into the elevator and up to the morgue without encountering anyone, and by anyone I meant Jacob, but that hope was dashed as soon as I stepped inside the lobby and saw him standing by the elevators.

I took a step back, intending to wait outside until he had taken an elevator up, but he turned and saw me.
Damn it.
A chilling smile curled his lips as I walked over.

“Selene, so good to see you again,” Jacob said. The false sincerity behind his words was not lost on me. The elevator doors slid open, and I had no choice but to get on. Jacob pressed the button for the twelfth floor and I hit six for the morgue.