The Undead Pool (36 page)

Ayer's confident motion to bring his pistol to bear hesitated as Annie shoved the barrel of her weapon into his kidneys. “Sir,” she said, and Ayer froze.

Betrayal!
the mystics screamed, recognizing Ayer's emotion. I gasped, head dropping as I tried to calm them. “Get this off me!” I cried, but no one moved.

“Annie?” Ayer put his hands slightly up and away from his body. “They killed your father. You're going to let that happen again to another innocent?”

“This isn't right,” she said, nervous but her hand steady. “It's a choice everyone makes. You can't make it for them.”

“Put your weapon down!” Edden said as he edged closer to me. “Now!”

I gasped as Edden jerked one, then another of the electrodes from me, eyes never leaving Ayer, muzzle never wavering from the vampire. But it made no difference. There was enough splintered mystics in me that I'd become a battlefield. The savage need to survive sparked from one to the next—and like a tree catching on fire, I was suddenly fighting the desire to destroy every thought but my own. Problem was, I couldn't decide who I was anymore.

Wild magic prickled along every nerve. It hurt to breathe, and I held my breath—eaten alive as the mystics looking to me tried to mend the splinter I'd taken in, calming them with the elasticity of my own thoughts and turning their circling into growth and change. But it wasn't enough.

Ayer breathed deeply, his eyes flashing black as he took in the fear of the room. “You can have my weapon when you pry it from—”

“Your cold dead hands,” Annie finished for him, digging her muzzle into him a little harder. “It ends here. You said we could leave any time we wanted. Consider this my notice.”

Panting, I hung my head. I could see my feet. I was in socks.
I am in socks?
That seemed important, and I concentrated on it, letting the mystic noise roar in the back of my head.
I,
as in singular.
Am,
as in existing.
In socks,
meaning I had feet. I was solid. I was real.

“Put the weapon down!” Edden shouted. “Now!”

“Hold on, Rachel,” someone whispered, and I felt the last of the electrodes being plucked from me as the spicy scent of Were sparked a memory of David.
I. Am. Real.

I breathed. Groaning, I tried to move, my hands unresponsive since they were still bound to the chair. David was at the machine flipping levers with a reckless abandon. I felt the thrum of the air shift, and the ache of wild magic began to pull from me, lifting like a fog, most of the mystics drawn away by a brighter light than my own. The insane splinter was flowing past my awareness with the coldness of a January moon. Slowly my confusion abated.

Kneeling, Ayer put his weapon on the floor.

“All the way,” Annie demanded, and he lay down, gaze never breaking from mine.

“I think that's it,” David said, thumbing off the power and turning to me. He looked anxious as he dropped to kneel before me. “Rachel. Are you okay?”

I was tied to a chair, but yes, I thought I was okay.

“Rachel?”

He touched me, and I twitched. Mistrust flooded me, born from the mystics.
It's David!
I hammered at the ones who had ignored the pull of the machine, demanding that they heed my single thought. But he'd seen my fear, and pain had filled his eyes. “I'm okay,” I said, not moving as he undid the straps. Still in the chair, I rubbed at my wrists. It was hard to focus. Remnants of the wild magic lingered in me, spinning like purple eyes. I was afraid to touch the line—the air already crackled with a lingering cloud of mystics.

Within me were more mystics than before, most tainted with the quick bite of insanity, but the ones I'd saved were circling, trying to absorb them like a white blood cell absorbs a virus. The confusion I felt wasn't mine, but it was still real, and I sat and breathed as it slowly eased and abated. “I'm okay,” I said again, wanting to believe it.

“Can you move?

Looking at David, I was shocked with how angry he was. His hands had been so gentle. Somehow I managed a smile. “Yes.” Edden was standing over Ayer. The man was facedown, his gun kicked away and his hands on the back of his head as Edden recited the Miranda. “How many people did you bring with you?” I asked, hearing noise in the background that couldn't be good. “It will take many singularities to end his dream.”

Aghast, I put a hand to my mouth.

David straightened, exchanging a nervous glance with Annie standing guard over the Ayer. “Thanks for your help. I'm sorry, but we're going to have to cuff you.”

“Use mine,” Edden said, reaching behind himself for his cuffs.

“Look out!” I shouted, falling back into the chair as Ayer lurched from the floor, grabbing Annie and yanking her to his chest.

“Resignation accepted,” he snarled, and my heart sank at the sudden twist and snap of her neck.

“No!” David shouted as he dove for Annie, now falling as Ayer ran for his weapon. She was dead dead, the second death. I couldn't tell you how I knew, but the energy from her mind was suddenly not there. I hadn't even realized I could sense it until it was gone.

She shouldn't have trusted the singular,
the mystics thought, most of them siding against me.
Many outweigh the one,
they scolded me.
You will become and do as the majority say.

I'd had enough.
Give me that!
I shouted in my mind, taking control of the wild magic still spinning through me. “
Rhombus!
” I screamed as Ayer's stretching finger touched his gun and pulled it to him as he spun to aim it at me.

My bubble rose up, dismaying the mystics until they realized they could go through it with impunity. Their delight quickly turned to thoughts of outrage as Ayer sprayed us with a hail of bullets, all of them harmlessly bouncing off.

“No, wait!” I cried, reaching out as they turned their thoughts to gleefully dealing out death.
Not so much!
I protested as they spun control of the wild magic away from me and a blast of white-hot wild magic exploded from my fingertips.

“Stop!” I cried out, knowing it was his death, but Ayer had leaped out of the way. Magic hit the wall and passed through, effortlessly dissolving the matter. Glowing, the leftover energy fell in on itself and vanished with a hiss.
Crap on toast, I'd made a hole in the wall.

Edden stared at the new four-foot hole before turning to me. David looked up from Annie to Ayer, more anger in him. “You killed her!” he exclaimed, furious. “Twice!”

Weapon in hand, Ayer reassessed the situation, hole in wall included. I couldn't help my smile as the wild magic brushed over my skin with the feel of feathers. Maybe I should kill him. Then I wouldn't have to decide if it was right or not.
End him,
the mystics demanded, the urge strengthening as myriad voices became one, louder than my own.
End them all!

“Right,” Ayer said, then dove through the hole in the wall, fleeing.

I couldn't help myself, and I stumbled after him as the mystics took control.
You will stop!
I demanded even as I felt my feet pulled out from under me. Snarling, I spun as I hit the floor. Edden's shocked expression flashed over him as I raised my hand to strike him.

“Enough!” I shouted at the mystics as he let go and fell back. Groaning, I curled into a ball. It took all my strength to keep from killing him, from killing them all with a blast of wild magic. Panting, I huddled where I was, but the mystics refused to believe that some people were worthy of trust and others weren't, that people were different, not the same.

“We have to go,” David whispered, and I pulled my head up. They were both looking at me, and nodding, I shakily got to my feet.

“Sorry,” I said, giving the hole in the wall a last look.
Edden is my friend,
I tried to explain to the mystics.
David, too. I trust them with my life.

End them,
the mystics clamored.
End all of them. Every single last one.

“You will not,” I whispered, ill as the wild magic they were giving off turned my stomach. What if they got back to the Goddess? They might give her the idea to end us all.

“Rachel?”

It was David, and I waved his reaching hand away. “Don't touch me,” I panted, afraid the mystics would misunderstand. “I'm okay. Let's go.”

Dark face sorrowful, he nodded. He gave Annie one long glance before turning and going out before us, the alpha in him making him graceful and resolute.
He has left the dead before,
I realized, not bothering to explain to the mystics the emotions I was feeling. It wasn't fair. Hell, it wasn't even just.

In the distance was the noise of battle, and I wondered how many people they'd brought—that, and where Ivy and Jenks were.

Ivy and Jenks?
the mystics wondered, and I had to explain it since the once-splintered mystics outnumbered the handful of voices that had a grasp of friendship. Understanding bled through them like water, and slowly the confusion eased.

We crept into the hallway, and I thought my sock feet looked odd on the flat brown carpet. “We can't go the way we came in,” Edden said tersely.

“Garage is that way,” David said. “I've got three packs out there ranging about. We get out of here, we'll be fine.”

“Which way? These hallways all look alike to me.”

David made a face. “It's that way,” he muttered, pointing and getting us moving again. “I can smell garage.”

I felt small between them, even with the thousand voices echoing between my ears, numb as I was pushed along like a leaf in the wind. “Rachel, stay behind me,” Edden said as we paused at the fire door.

David put an ear to the door, listening. “I think we're good.” He opened the door a crack and looked through. Silence and darkness met us. Behind came the pop of guns. They'd lost their meaning, but my unhelped slash of alarm brought the mystics awake.

End their dream!
a slew of voices insisted suddenly.

Be still!
another, smaller faction insisted, and that was the one I upheld, turning the tide though we were outnumbered. I couldn't tell who was who anymore. They were all mixed up, all of them driving me crazy.

I can't do this forever.
Confusion seeped up from the corners of my mind as David beckoned me through and into the dark. I could feel an open space, hear an echo from their shoes, and grit scrunched under my sock feet.

“Let me find the light switch,” Edden said, his voice drifting away. It was an undead vampire's garage, and the best were usually lightproof. This one was no exception.

Found it,
I thought, the mystics in me reading the patterns of electricity in the unseen wall. With a thought, I flipped the energy flow and the lights came on, flicking eerily until they warmed up. Dust coated a row of cars, and Edden pulled his hand back from the light switch, never having touched it. Seeing his unease, I shrugged. “Thanks.”

Pace increasing, we shuffled for the small door at the end of the room. There had to be at least half a dozen, all small and fast. A thump shook the floor. Edden looked at David in question, and the younger man shook his head.

“Ah, can you do any magic?” David asked, not knowing that I'd switched the light on.

“The trick is to keep from doing it,” I said, thinking the jet-black car we were passing was beautiful—sparking a mystic conversation in me about why I used mass to move through more mass instead of just moving in the space between. I had to get rid of them before they drove me crazy.

Uneasy, David gave me lots of room as he reached for the door. My head came up as it opened, the scent of burning city a balm after the stuffy, vampire-incense-rich air. The mystics picked up on my desire to be free, bolstering my need to be outside. I practically bolted out, coming to a shocked stop at the three men in the bushes. Fear blossomed as I slid to a halt, gasping at the surge of wild magic. Vampires.

End them!
the mystics raged, and I gaped at the three men in horror as wild magic coursed through me, my not-mine desire to destroy them burning bright.

You will listen!
I shouted into my mind, staggering into David as I struggled for control, beating the thousand voices back, demanding that they heed my one.
You will listen to me!

“It's okay! I've got them cuffed!” the Were in the borrowed FIB hat exclaimed as I fell back in apparent terror. “They gave themselves up.”

“I never agreed to killing masters,” the vampire in the raggedy T-shirt said, his hands indeed pulled tight behind him, but if they were FIB-issue cuffs, they wouldn't hold.

“Is that the woman Ayer has been going on about?” the other vampire said, and I hunched into a ball, my feet in the gravel and my hands clenched and breath held as I tried not to kill them. The scent of my cotton shirt filled my nose, and I focused on it, picking the details of the aroma apart to distract myself.
Dusky, dry stones in the sun.
“It's okay, ma'am. Ayer's crazy. We won't hurt you.”

David pulled me to my feet and drew me past them into the shadows. “She's not scared. She's trying not to kill you,” he muttered. “Let's go. Where is everyone?”

The man with the FIB cap pushed the vampires into motion. “Tailing them. They had a back door we didn't know about, and most got out that way.” He hesitated. “Is that Morgan?” he asked, his voice holding disappointment as I stumbled, head down and not watching where I was going.

“It's been a bad day,” David said, his hand still on my elbow. “Edden, where did you leave the car?” he asked, and Edden pushed his mustache out as he scanned the long-abandoned streets. Behind us, something exploded in a harsh pop.