Zombies Sold Separately (39 page)

I glanced at Desmond. “There should be a way to recover the stones with their essences and Desmond can handle the exchange. It’s part of what we’ll be working on.”

“Wow.” Nadia shook her head. “Can’t believe it happened to Lawan and Olivia.”

“Don’t worry.” I heard the conviction in my voice. “We
will
get them back.”

Nadia frowned. “What about Angel?”

I glanced at Rodán before looking at the rest of the room. “We don’t know. She vanished after the attack at the theater.”

“Shit,” Ice said again.

I agreed wholeheartedly.

“Captain Wysocki has disappeared,” Rodán said to me. “I fear she has been taken.”

My breath caught in my throat. The captain, too?

“I would like to address the issue of you as Trackers.” Rodán took control of the meeting. “Even though it is not the real council that has made the ruling to disband the Night Trackers,” Rodán said, “we must now operate covertly. No one outside of this room is aware of what has happened to the council members.”

Nancy finished the last piece of a Godiva chocolate bar before she said, “How do you know for sure that the council members are all now Hosts?”

“If you’d been there, you’d be certain.” I twisted in my seat to look at her. “I didn’t realize it until Rodán told me after we’d escaped. It’s the only thing that makes sense.”

“What now?” Nadia shoved back a lock of her thick red hair, her expression earnest as she spoke. “If we’ve been disbanded, what happens to our territories?”

“We still do our jobs.” Ice wore an expression of anger rather than the smart-assed one he usually had on. “This bullshit won’t stop us.”

“Ice is not correct.” Rodán brought everyone’s attention back to him. “This is not bullshit. Worrying about our normal concerns as Peacekeepers won’t matter if we as a world are taken over.”

Rodán continued, “This matter commands our full focus and attention. Nothing matters except solving this and stopping the Sorcerer Amory.” Rodán looked calmly at each of us. “It is like tracking a Metamorph who is mugging a norm while at the same time someone is trying to wipe out the world with a nuclear bomb.”

We were all quiet as we absorbed his words. Even Ice was silent, which was saying something.

“As Trackers,” Rodán added, “you’ll need to avoid the PTF because they will now be on the lookout to arrest each of you.”

“The big question,” Nadia said, “is how do we solve this?”

“It’s complicated,” I said from my seat on the couch. “I’ll go over it in more detail with my team.”

“Only your team?” Kelly said. “Why not the rest of us?”

“The fewer who know the details, the better,” Rodán said. “In the case that one of you is captured and taken as a Host.”

Rodán looked at Mandisa. “You will take Olivia’s place on Nyx’s team.”

Mandisa gave a slight bow of her head. She would be an asset—as long as she didn’t shoot any of us with one of her poisoned arrows. The tall Abatwa Fae had a look about her that said, “Cross me and die.”

Next Rodán caught Meryl’s gaze. “You will go in place of Angel.”

Rodán met the eyes of every Tracker as his gaze slowly swept the room. “We must isolate this group. We cannot have one more of you taken with information we possess and have that go to the enemy.”

Max, a scarred, auburn-haired Werewolf who grew up in the Bronx, got to his feet. “You’ve got it, boss.”

“Check in by phone?” Tracey asked as she stood.

Rodán shook his head. “I have a place for all of us to stay, where you will be safe. I’ve already made reservations at the Mandarin Oriental.”

“Nice,” Kelly said.

Rodán didn’t mention that was the same location we housed the Magi, but that wasn’t something he likely wanted in the minds of anyone who could potentially be caught.

“You will all be called upon,” Rodán said. “For the time being, until we are ready, I need you all to lie low.”

The room gradually emptied as Trackers headed to the Mandarin. Then only my team assigned to the Zombie case was left, along with Desmond and Rodán. Mandisa, Penrod, Colin, Meryl, Ice, and Joshua stayed.

Once the room was cleared of everyone not on my special team, I started outlining our plan. Our team would go to the Doran Otherworld and find out whatever we could before returning to the Earth Otherworld and making our stand. Each member of the team interrupted whenever they had a question. We had to know Amory’s plan and anticipate his next move in order to have a chance to stop him.

But when I told my team that I would take over Candace Moreno’s body, it caused a small uproar.

“Not acceptable,” Joshua said with a scowl.

Ice snarled. “Are you out of your damned mind, Nyx?”

“We can’t take the chance of you never being able to return to your own body, Nyx,” Meryl said with a stubborn tilt of her chin.

“We need to do what it takes to beat Amory.” I got to my feet from the couch and started pacing then stopped and looked at Desmond. “And I trust Desmond.”

“I will keep Nyx’s body safe,” Desmond said. “This task must be done. I believe that I can put Nyx back in her own body once you’ve completed your mission.”

“You
believe
,” Meryl said with a skeptical look. “But you don’t know for sure, right?”

Desmond met my gaze. “It is a chance you must take.”

Colin studied me with concern as did the others. Ice’s face was unreadable, but he didn’t look pleased.

I swallowed, trying not to picture my body as a Zombie. “Listen to what Desmond has to say so that we can get started.”

“One of the recovered stones is a keystone,” Desmond said. “We will be able to use it to locate the portal to Doran.”

“Are you coming with us?” Meryl asked.

Desmond shook his head. “I would go with you but my powers have been rendered useless there. I would be more of a hindrance than a help. I can do a much better job here where I still have my powers.”

“How will you be able to help us here?” Colin asked.

“Amory needs to come here, on what is now my territory, my soil. Once he does, then I will have the power to defeat him.”

“You all have talents that will help you on Doran,” I said. “Joshua will be able to go as shadow and Ice as any form of animal he chooses, such as a mouse when we’re in the mansion. Meryl goes as an oriole, and Mandisa and Penrod can use glamours.”

“Will our powers work there?” Meryl asked.

“Yes,” Desmond said, then looked at me. “Except for Nyx. She will only have the power of her Host body.”

“Which means none since the Host body is human,” Colin said dryly.

“The advantage I do have,” I said, “Is that the Host I’ll be taking over is that of a Sentient who happens to be Amory’s niece and a key member of his Inner Circle.”

“At least you’ve got that going for you,” Meryl said, still not looking pleased.

“At least,” I agreed with a nod. “Now to put our plans into action.”

THIRTY-THREE

Friday, December 31

Morning

“Is it going to hurt?” I asked as I moved away from Colin and Desmond. I seated myself in a hardback chair, directly across from the chair Candace Moreno’s Host body was strapped to.

The gagged Host fought against the bonds, looking wild-eyed as the Sentient Bryna struggled from within.

It was morning and the four of us were in Desmond’s apartment, after I’d used my glamour to help us steal Candace’s Host body from the infirmary. Lucky us that we managed to get away without getting caught.

I wondered if we counted as five persons instead of four with Candace in the stone and Bryna in Candace’s body.

To be ready for anything when we returned, I was in my leather fighting outfit, but had handed my weapons belt to Desmond for safekeeping when I’d arrived. Wouldn’t do to have an armed Zombie-body left behind.

“I don’t think it will hurt.” Desmond answered my question with a casual shrug. “Although I have never asked anyone if it does.”

“Great.” I swallowed and tried to relax. “How can you do the same thing Amory can do in the transference of essences?” I asked.

“The magic is in the stones,” Desmond said. “My powers are similar to Amory’s and I understand the mind and the process like he does. It is a matter of tapping into the power of the stones. We both can do this.”

“What are you doing?” I said as Desmond and Colin began to strap my own body down.

“We need to make sure your body remains safe when you exchange essences,” Desmond said.

I tested the restraints. “These aren’t strong enough to hold me.”

“They will be.” Desmond rose and stepped back and Colin did the same.

Desmond raised his hands and a yellow glow radiated from his palms. The glow felt warm against my skin and I suddenly felt relaxed, languid. The bonds tightened around me and I pulled against them. The magic he used was so strong that the bonds had no give to them at all.

The Sorcerer picked up the cloth-wrapped stone that had Candace Moreno’s essence locked inside. He pulled the cloth aside and I saw the tiny image of Candace staring out the flat side, as if she was trying to look through a TV screen.

Desmond placed the cloth and stone on the end table closest to me. “As long as no one else is touching the stone at the same time, you are safe and you will have control.” He crouched beside my chair. “Because you have control of the stone, your essence will go into Candace’s body, and Bryna’s essence will join Candace’s in the stone.”

I swallowed and looked up at Colin who gave me an encouraging nod. I knew he wanted to argue against my doing this, but he also was aware that this was a way to get in with the Sorcerer Amory, something we really needed right now.

“It’s just temporary,” I said to Colin and he gave me a grim smile.

Desmond stood beside me, looking deceptively calm. Colin was on my opposite side.

When I picked up the stone an electrical sensation shot through my arm, straight for my head. It was like my brain was suddenly connected in some way to the stone.

My heart beat faster and I looked up at Desmond. “Go on,” he said. “Touch her.”

“Okay.” Maybe I said it to shore up my courage as I took a deep breath. Then I repeated the word. “Okay.”

I can do this.

My heart pounded, my breathing become tight and painful in my chest.

Bryna struggled, her eyes growing wider as I reached for her hand. It all seemed to happen in slow motion, as if I had to force myself to do it.

She screamed behind her gag as my fingers met hers.

Brilliant white light flashed in my head. My whole body prickled when I felt myself grasp the stone.

At the same time I realized that it wasn’t my fingers wrapped around it anymore. Yet I was holding it.

The thoughts didn’t make sense as I felt myself rush forward, straight for Candace’s body. At the same time I wanted to scream for it to stop. To change my mind. Not to do this.

Too late. I felt myself flow into the other body.

Colors exploded in my mind. If felt like I was surrounded with brilliant flashes of light in green, blue, purple, orange, red.

Pictures flashed around me. It was like I was standing in a circular room filled with screens. On each screen were images I didn’t recognize. They swirled around me, and then began bombarding me with so much information I thought I might pass out from it.

A mixture of Candace’s memories, Bryna’s memories, and mine, too. Information came to me with each image, as if they were my own memories.

Christmas with Candace’s large family in Mexico; Bryna talking with a tall dark-skinned man she referred to as Amory and the knowledge that he was in a new body; Adam and I in the Italian restaurant when he broke up with me; Candace at work in her position as the CEO in a brokerage house; Bryna stalking Candace, holding the stone, ready to trade essences with her; Bryna watching her own body walk away, now a Zombie, after she made Candace her Host; Colin and I fighting Sentients in the coffee shop.

One image after another after another after another … a hundred different thoughts all at one time … everything flying around in my brain until I thought my head would explode from it all.

“Nyx!” I heard Colin’s shout somewhere outside my head and the bombardment of thoughts and memories.

Someone was shaking me—but not me.

I grasped onto the thread that was me. A thread that felt drawn so tight that it might snap.

“Nyx.” Desmond’s voice. “Open your eyes.”

My eyes. Not my eyes.

Warm hands on my own. Not my own. But grounding me. Bringing me forth out of the swirling haze that surrounded me.

“Open your eyes,” Desmond repeated.

I gripped the strong male hands holding my own and clenched my teeth, and willed everything to slow and come into focus.