A Torment of Savages (The Reanimation Files Book 4) (21 page)

“I don’t know…” he said. “From one to another? Why would I do that to myself? The world is in chaos and it’s even more terrifying because I have to live with hearing about things, unable to see the terror, unable to know when it’s coming for me…”

“So are you going to live in fear?” I asked. “You got up this morning and came to work. That tells me you’re not willing to hide away and wait for something bad to take you. You still have your spark left, Taj. You will have it right up until the moment the world ends, if it comes to that. I’m not offering you money, just an opportunity to do something right. Jacob wanted to use you to tear me down. I am asking you to help me build back a group of people who never should have fallen.”

Taj was silent for a while and I could see that he was struggling with his emotions. Finally, he sighed and looked away.

“When I first met you, I could tell you were not a bad person,” he said softly. “My perceptions are always right about people. Jacob…with him, I knew…” He squared his shoulders. “What’s the story?”

I took something out of my purse and put it in his hand. “When you are absolutely alone, listen to this,” I said. “Write the story, then wait for my call to publish it.”

* * *

“What’s to stop Taj from publishing the story early?” Kyo asked. I was home, where Kyo had stayed while Ethan and I headed out on our tasks. I’d made it back first, and hoped that Ethan would be able to do what I’d sent him to do.

“I paid a visit to Carlos before I went to wait out Taj,” I said. I hadn’t been certain Carlos would be there as early as I had gone to see him, but he was. Apparently he frequently slept in his stuffy hole. I could not fathom that being anywhere near comfortable, but I suppose he was used to it. “Carlos is going to monitor all of Taj’s electronics and stop it if he should try to publish the story early.”

“Okay, but what if he tells someone?”

“That I can’t do anything about, but I don’t think word of mouth will hurt our plan, no one is likely to believe him.”

“Looks like you covered your bases,” Kyo said.

“As much as I can. I just hope this pays off.” I came out of the kitchen where I’d made myself a massive ham and cheese sandwich. I’d left too early to be in the mood to each much more than some yogurt.

“I believe in you,” Kyo said, sitting down next to me on the couch. “And I can’t thank you enough…”

“Don’t thank me yet,” I said. “Thank me when you have your body back.”

Kyo nodded. “I never thought it would happen,” he said. “I thought I would spend eternity in the In Between…”

“Yet you never let Chaos take you, or an Absorber, or a
Kage-Oni
. You endured when so many of your fellow warlocks succumbed.”

“The thought of following suit crossed my mind several thousand times,” Kyo said, voice low. “But something always stopped me. I couldn’t understand it, and I was frustrated at the fact that some part of me thought enduring in hell was better than ending it completely, but I could never give myself over to true non-existence. And maybe it was because of what’s happening now. Maybe some force greater than myself knew that I would get this chance to be whole again.”

“Maybe,” I said with a small smile. “I died for two minutes and the stars aligned.”

“And my soul was dragged from darkness into the light I had been long denied, and thrust me into the arms of an angel, who would take sword to the hearts of those undeserving, and let my fight be her fight…”

“Did I actually start a poem there? Wow, I have skills.”

Kyo flashed a smile at me. “You have many skills, Selene, and I am grateful for them all.”

Shortly after I finished my sandwich and was really starting to wonder where Ethan was and if his part of the plan had gone awry, the door opened and he came in looking flushed but triumphant.

“I can’t believe I pulled that off,” he said. Kyo and I rushed over to him.

“You did it?” I asked. “And Tielle didn’t suspect anything?”

“She didn’t,” Ethan said.

“And you got it?” Kyo asked.

Ethan rummaged around in his bag and took something out, which he then presented to me. “I got it.”

I took the object from Ethan with a smile. “Phase one is complete. On to phase two.”

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

I walked into Tielle’s office looking calm on the outside while I felt like I was burning up inside from the rage I was trying to not let show. On the one hand, I had long known how ruthless Tielle could be, but our recent stint as allies and something that sort of resembled friends meant that what she’d just done to me hurt quite a bit. It was all I could do not to blow in here on all that rage and slam her head onto the desk she was sitting behind until her skull cracked open and…

Deep breath. I took a slow, deep breath, and exhaled it just as slowly. Tielle was on the phone, so I stood in front of her desk until she hung up. She got up and came around her desk and what would you know, she gave me very sympathetic eyes as she looked me over. Someone give this woman an Oscar.

“I can’t believe what happened,” Tielle said. “But you seem to be on the mend. I am sorry I was too tied up with work to come visit.”

“It’s okay,” I said, forcing my voice to remain neutral. It didn’t help that Tielle was wearing that awful perfume again. “I’m healing well because of my little soul-less glitch, but my speedy recovery sure confounded the doctors.”

“I’ll bet,” Tielle said, flashing a quick smile.

“The Savages and Revath keeping you busy I assume?”

“Yes,” Tielle said, face growing solemn. “It’s hard to anticipate when the Savages will appear again, but it’s been estimated that there are about fifty of them by now.”

Revath was halfway there.

“We’ve been able to capture a few and are holding them in a more secure location than we did Brian.”

“Hopefully they don’t escape.”

“They won’t get far if they do,” Tielle said. “But this whole Savage situation is even more distressing because Micah is now one of them. How are you holding up?”

“Not well,” I said. “I won’t be okay until the darkness is out of Micah and his soul is back in. Revath keeps the Savages’ souls in a rune that’s hung around her neck. I saw her suck Micah’s soul into it. But I don’t think it will be easy to get that away from her.”

“At least we know where the souls are,” Tielle said. “It is information we can work with.”

“And Nova is still locked up?”

“Yes,” Tielle said, nodding. “She keeps calling for you.”

“I’ll bet,” I said. “I have nothing more to say to her. She started this, but she cannot stop it.”

“Are you afraid?” Tielle asked, voice low. “This is unlike anything we’ve ever dealt with before. I am at a loss as to how to contend with this sort of power.”

“I’m a lot of things,” I said, walking over to the windows. Being too close to Tielle was making me want to wrap my hands around her throat.

“How’s Ethan?” Tielle followed me and we looked out at the view of the city. Were the Savages going to rise soon? I shuddered, trying to push the image of those red, soulless eyes from my mind. I had to focus on why I was here.

“Did he black out again?” Tielle asked. “I wanted him to stay but he insisted on going home.”

“Was it a bad episode this time?”

“It seemed so, I am very concerned. He said he wanted to come by and talk to me about what was going on, but not too long after he got here he started to convulse and blacked out. I went to get help but he had regained consciousness by the time I returned. It frustrates me that I cannot figure out what is causing these blackouts. I tried to persuade him to stay for more tests, but the thought of that seemed to scare him.”

“Can’t blame him, after what he’s been through,” I said. “But I’ll keep an eye on him and if it gets worse he won’t have a choice but to come in.”

“Okay, good.”

I let silence take over for a moment before I spoke again. “How’s your son, Jian?”

“He’s well, still taking in what NYU has to offer. I think he’s leaning toward going there.”

“Ethan told me they met,” I said lightly. “Said he seemed nice, I’d like to meet him before he leaves.”

“We can arrange that, granted the Savages don’t enact another massacre.”

“Hmm. Or I can meet him this afternoon, in Washington Square Park, where he’s currently sitting by himself on the rim of the fountain reading The Fault in Our Stars.”

“What?” Tielle’s tone was sharp and her eyes narrowed as her head whipped to the side to stare at me. I turned to her with a slow smile.

“I know exactly where your son is right now and what he’s doing.” That was thanks to Kyo and Ethan. Ethan had texted me while I was in the elevator to tell me that they had Jian in their sights.

“What are you playing at, Selene? Why the interest in my son?”

“Because your adopted son is very interesting to me,” I said. “Or rather, your biological son that you gave up for adoption then adopted after stripping him of his dead magic. That sounded confusing, but as you are already well aware of what you’ve done, I’m sure I don’t need to clarify.”

Tielle’s body was rigid, and if her eyes could shoot lasers, I’d have two gaping holes in my body right now.

“Selene…what…”

“Thinking of unleashing an angry tirade on me? I wouldn’t.” My voice was flat, no inflection of emotion in it, and I met Tielle’s gaze without flinching. I let my anger fill me up until my body was flushed with heat. My hands balled into fists.

“I know all about the true dead witch history,” I said. “And I know that you know I know. Jian is your biological son and he has no idea of that. Or that he is a dead warlock without his magic. I also know something else. That you were the one who had me beaten. Your cloying perfume gave you away, Tielle, but bravo on that convincing show you just put on pretending to care about my well-being.”

Tielle’s eyes narrowed even more, but she said nothing. Her mouth had flattened into a tight, tension-filled line.

“How did you find out?” I asked. “And why couldn’t you have just talked to me about it?”

“Because it’s none of your business,” she spat. “And I found out from Leena.”

“I used a memory altering rune on her.”

“A large quantity of those runes turned out to be defective. The effects were not permanent. Unlike the Memory Rune I used on the men I hired to take you, Leena regained the memories you wiped out. Then she came straight to me.”

“Where you immediately arranged for me to be abducted and beaten to scare me off my investigation.”

“You have no business poking your nose where it doesn’t belong.”

“You really think I am the wrong party here? Are you fucking serious?” I couldn’t stop my voice from rising and it was all I could do not to punch her in the face. “For over three hundred years you dead witches have been gorging yourselves on the magic of dead warlocks. You ripped their souls from their bodies and banished them to the In Between. Then you flourished while history forgot they even existed. All because they didn’t want to help you and the fucked-up human government of that time kill off reanimators. And after that, generations of dead witches killed male infants to make sure the warlocks never rose again. Killed their own damn babies moments after they took their first breath. Oh, I guess you’d say the past couple generations have been more humane in their approach to males that are born, but it really isn’t much better to take someone’s magic and lie to them about who they really are. You and all the dead witches who insist on sitting on top of this dark, horrible, secret are the truly despicable ones, as is showcased by the lengths you were willing to go through just to stop me. I am someone who helped you more than once, saved your ass more than once. I just cleaned up your mess with the crossover ghosts and this is what you do to me?” I took a step closer to Tielle, and whatever she saw in my eyes made her take a step back. An uncertain look flashed across her face.

“I am going to blow this wide open,” I said. “And there is nothing you can do to stop me. But if you do not give me what I want right now, I will bring your son into this in a way I am sure you do not want.” I nodded my head toward her desk. “Why don’t you go have a look at the pretty little rune box you keep in your desk drawer.”

Tielle frowned, then a split second later hustled over to her desk and pulled out her rune box. Moments later she gasped and stared at me with a warring look of fear and anger.

“Could it be that a green rune that’s wrapped in gold is missing?” I asked. “The rune that contains the magic you drew out of your son when he was born? Yeah, I have it. And that was the real reason for Ethan’s visit by the way. His blackout problem is real and needs to be addressed, but the one he had here was a performance.”

Tielle sputtered, clearly having a hard time wrapping her head around the fact that she’d been played. I had told Ethan where her rune box was and which rune to procure after his fake blackout. I remembered that Tielle had used runes she kept in that box to scan my body last year and inform me that part of my soul was missing. I had seen the green and gold rune then, and seeing Magda’s had jogged my memory.

“Selene, give me that…”

“Oh, I don’t have it on me,” I said, cutting off her thunderous words. “Ethan has it. And if he doesn’t hear from me in the next…” I checked my phone, “ten minutes, he is going to go up to your son, sitting on the fountain in Washington Square Park, tell him all about your deception, and give him that rune. Your relationship with your son will become something I don’t think you can salvage, would you like that?”

Tielle’s body was shaking, and her face had turned red with rage. I was not afraid of her lashing out at me though. One, I couldn’t die, and two, I had just put a time limit on things. Her time was best used helping me as opposed to trying to hurt me.

“I’ve also disabled his phone for the time being, in case you were thinking of calling him.” That was a favor I had asked of Carlos when I went to see him earlier.

“If you’re going to expose us anyway what difference does it make to threaten my son?” Tielle said. “He will find out regardless.”