Ghost Shadow (Moon Shadow Series Book 4) (27 page)

Spook scooted next to me, panting. I’d have reached to pet him, but lifting my arm was too much effort.

The gargoyle retrieved and then landed with Espy, settling gently near our pile of bodies.

“I must say, well met,” it said.

I stared at it, speechless.

Chapter 35

Oddly enough, the first thought to wander through my tired brain was to wonder whether the gargoyle smelled like a bat or not. He stood upright in a hunched gargoyle kind of way; from that position, he met me eye to eye even though I was sitting. His ears were almost as long as his entire head. Now that I had time to notice, his skin was several shades of gray and black. Leathery wings folded neatly behind him, almost invisible, making his arms resemble those of a human.

Spook didn’t seem alarmed or surprised by the nearness of the bat-beast.

“Thank you, witch,” the gargoyle rumbled at Adriel. “Your magic set me free.”

“Uhm, yeah.” Adriel muttered something about the moonlight, but it was little more than a puff of air followed by, “I didn’t know that spell could be absorbed through stone.”

“My name is Horacio.” He spoke with a clipped Spanish accent and a hurried cadence to his words. “I was trapped as stone for a very long time.”

“Who trapped you?” Lynx wanted to know.

“The prior was an old fashioned fellow who brought me over from Spain. Following in a long line of tiresome customs, he was granted my companionship for protection as a favor.”

“What happened to him?” I asked.

“The idiot died before passing on the proper release spells or granting me my freedom. It is in our nature to turn to stone and back, but as part of my promise, much to my regret, he held the key to that power for the time of my indenture. His death was rather sudden. There were things here he did not understand, and he did not learn readily despite my passing along wisdom.”

“No one else could release you?” Adriel asked.

The bat-head nodded. “Just so.”

I did some quick calculations of my own. “Your term is surely over, so you’re now free to go about your business?”

“Just so.” His smile was a bit toothy and rather fearsome. He was going to create some interesting dynamics in the world. Of course, if shifters, witches and vampires were all over the place, what was one small gargoyle?

“Thanks for the help.” I swept my arm to include the spattered mess around us. “We were having a time of it, and I’m not sure we’d have gotten Espy up there fast enough. Speaking of Espy,” I gave her a quizzical look. “Where is your aunt?”

“Somewhere that way. We were running, but I stopped.” She leaned tiredly against Horacio. “I knew the demon was coming through. I felt the tear in the fabric of the world. It was hunting me anyway. So I figured I may as well come back and see if I could tell you his name so you could pass it on to the guy you talked about.”

“That was very brave,” White Feather said softly.

“Damn straight,” Lynx added.

I slipped sideways just enough to see her finger. The black mark was gone. I would have told her so, but once back in my own body, her eyes met mine. She already knew. “Your aunt will be thrilled that the demon mark is gone,” I said instead.

She nodded. “Me too.”

White Feather and Adriel helped each other stand. Adriel surveyed the area in disgust. “We’ll need to come back and help Tino clean up this mess.”

“And find out where she lived.” White Feather pointed to Julia’s mangled body.

“At least we know Amy’s mother was the accomplice,” I said. “She worked at the hospital and had complete access to everyone involved.”

Lynx nodded. “It would be great if she left behind answers to some of our other questions.”

No argument there.

Chapter 36

After Adriel and White Feather dropped us off at The Owl, we picked up burgers for the way home. Tino appeared long enough to make sure we were okay and to complain about the mess at The Monastery. Apparently a very damaging wind storm had destroyed windows, dishes and tablecloths when White Feather attempted to stop Julia from following us.

I was pretty sure that the burn marks Tino described on his hardwood floors had nothing to do with Adriel or White Feather. Amy had more than enough demon in her to have left scorched footprints with ease.

The smell of sulfur clung to every pore, and I was almost too tired to eat. “We need to send Kyle a new set of guitar strings,” I said as Lynx parked the car in front of his house.

“Tonight?” His face fell as though I had stolen his burger.

I opened the car door and groaned my way out. Every part of me was stiff and sore. “No, but soon. And I am not sure I can talk to Kyle without Roberto’s help anymore so can we invite him too?” I explained how I had used the guitar pick. “It’s gone now. It was my only link to Kyle.” Sadness gripped my heart.

“Good thing he was already married,” Lynx grumbled.

He surprised a laugh out of me. “You have nothing to worry about.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” I reached out and linked his fingers with mine. He rarely smiled, but his eyes lit up and not with the glow of cat yellow.

***

I remembered showering, but not falling asleep.

Next thing I knew, Lynx was shaking me awake. “It’s gone, Shadow. The javelina from hell is gone.”

I stared up at him, breathing hard. My fists were clenched as though holding a staff between them. Lynx was right where the bar would be, holding my hands apart with his shoulders.

“You sure it’s gone?”

“Well, it’s not here right now.”

He was such an optimist. “I was back In Between.” My voice cracked. “In the dream I couldn’t leave without knowing my name. I don’t want to go back there.”

“You might have to someday, but we can plan it better.”

“I wonder what happened to my name.”

“It doesn’t matter. I don’t know my name either,” he admitted.

The window let in light from the coming dawn, but he was still only half visible, his face cloaked in shadows. “What do you mean, you don’t know your name?”

“Names are important. The ones you’re given, the ones you come to own. There’s power in a name, that’s why it banished the demon. Once they had his name and blood, Martin knew the right rituals. He’s one cool witch dude.”

I sat up. “When people crossed into In Between, I could sense their names. We all could, but no one knew my name.”

“So you either lost yours or you left it behind.” He shrugged. “When a thing like that Amy chick is chasing you, it might be good to lose your name.”

“What happened to your name?”

He shrugged, his eyes dropping, but only for a moment. “My mom never gave me one.”

There was probably a lot more to that story, but it didn’t matter right now. “So your name is Lynx.”

He nodded. “And your name is Shadow.” He said it with such finality, it was like a promise.

I threw my arms around him and kissed him with every bit of need inside me, enough to kill him had we been In Between. But I wasn’t dead, and he was alive with his own passion that may have come close to matching mine.

He leaned in, giving as good as he got, pressing me back against the pillows.

I wrapped my legs around him, not caring if he felt trapped. He moved against me, closer, his hands gripping my arms so hard he might well leave bruises. I didn’t care. Our bodies tangled, tasting, nipping,
feeling
. I’d have begged for his touch, but was too busy ripping at his stubborn shirt, trying to convey everything all at once.

He pulled back, breathing hard, his eyes glinting in the dark with his own need. “Shadow...are you sure?”

“Lynx, don’t make me beat you up again.”

He smiled. A real, honest-to-goodness smile.

The warmth of it stayed with me, even as he ducked his head under his shirt and threw it across the room.

It was wonderful to be alive.

Chapter 37

From the outside, Julia Inkstar’s home was a quiet little place, especially in the dark. There was no grass in the front yard, but hardy roses, yarrow and lilacs lined the porch. Lynx had picked the time of one hour after midnight.

Adriel carried a flashlight, but she left it off.

White Feather blew a questing breeze through the place. Then Adriel did some sort of earth check. “It’s contaminated. I don’t even want to try to find silver or gold.” She sounded like her teeth were grinding.

Since everyone was being cautious, I was prepared to investigate next, but Spook beat me to it.

He trotted back out, and I clicked my fingers before drifting sideways. “Well, Spook?”

“Woof.” He coughed, hung his head and gagged.

“But is it safe?”

He sat and looked at me.

“Well, okay not safe and great, but we won’t die, right?”

He barked a pitiful “woooof” that was half wail as though he accepted we had to enter the place, but he didn’t like it.

I shifted back. “He says it smells bad, and he’s completely against us being here, but he won’t stop us.”

“He said all that?” White Feather asked.

I shrugged. “More or less.”

“I can attest to the smell,” he said. “Amy must not have taken care of much after she inhabited her mother.”

Worse than a lack of care was the flickering portal visible as soon as we squeezed through the front door. White Feather turned on the lights.

I might not have recognized the gateway to In Between had Amy not used water before, but a claw foot tub in the living room would have gotten our attention regardless.

“Don’t stand too close to it,” I warned. “I don’t think it’s an open portal right now, but it might suck you right into In Between. Martin said some portals are doors that will let anything through.”

“How do we close it?” Adriel demanded.

“Martin used a bloodstone to activate the other portal. Amy used Troy’s life energy to activate it. I never saw how Martin destroyed the portal. It closed when Roberto yanked the bloodstone, but Martin would have had to destroy the circle of stones Amy had set there.”

Spook barked and circled the tub. I knew what he wanted, but it made me sigh. “Sideways again.”

“Don’t get too close,” Lynx muttered.

I circled first. The portal didn’t appear to be open, not exactly. Like the water In Between, there was an odd sheen to it. Nothing other than the tub bottom should have been visible, but there was a gray swirl underneath the surface. I had a bad feeling that if any of us touched it, it would use us to open the portal. I sank back into myself.

“It’s not really open. But it’s not closed either. I think it needs some kind of energy to activate it, but I’m not sure what would happen if we attacked it.”

White Feather said, “The problem isn’t opening it. It’s closing it down. Can we drain the water?”

“Not without touching it. And we definitely don’t want anything with energy touching it.”

“I can blow it out of there,” he replied.

“Would that move the portal? Or destroy it? It might change how it worked.” I shrugged. “I don’t know.”

Lynx disappeared outside and returned with a large rock. “Nothing attached to us. Not magic. You witches waste too much time.”

“But that rock is earth,” Adriel said. “It holds some magic!”

“I could never obtain energy from plain rocks,” I asserted.

Lynx didn’t wait a millisecond longer before he tossed the boulder directly into the water.

The tub was half full. The rock was heavy. Water should have splashed out onto the already dirty carpet, but the rock hit and then sank slowly. It was still on this side, but it took on an odd grayish cast amidst the ripples.

I flicked my fingernails and slid sideways.

The rock had changed the portal. I could now see the mist, the fog that was always In Between. The shadows shifted.

Spook barked.

I ignored him in favor of trying to make out the shapes...Spook barked again. There was an odd sound of music, not the demon kind, but...was that Troy? No, not Troy. Why was I so confused?

Kyle was a ghost of his former ghost self. His back was hunched, much as Troy’s had been when he was drained. He was trying to play, but there were notes missing. He may have banished the demon, but it had cost him. Unless he obtained new strings, he couldn’t repair himself. His music was part of his soul.

Spook barked again, and this time he dashed right through me, startling me into floating backwards. How had I gotten so close?!?

Lynx was yelling. “Shadow! Shadow, breathe!”

No, this portal wasn’t open, not exactly. But it had a vortex that slowly sucked energy into it.

I sank back into myself, staggering.

Lynx had hold of my shoulders. He didn’t stop shaking me. “You stopped breathing! Don’t do that!”

Adriel’s bracelets were on fire. “I can’t ground here,” she said through her teeth. “This place is contaminated.”

White Feather threw open a window. He used the fresh air to blast out two more windows at the back of the house. Old books and piles of paper scattered across the couch fluttered in the breeze.

“Keep breathing,” Lynx ordered.

When I tried to speak, I realized I had half floated free again. I hadn’t meant to do it.

He snapped his fingers in front of my face, but my eyes were wide open and staring at nothing.

The swirling gray was pulling things into it. Not just me, but the breeze that blew through and the line of blue where Adriel had tried to ground. She was connected to it. The scattered bits of her power slowly rotated closer to the center of the gray vortex.

I did the only thing I could think of. I reached for Adriel’s bracelet and slashed my hand through the energy, sucking a hole through it.

The spark tossed me backwards, slamming me into myself so fast and hard, I knocked myself and Lynx to the floor.

White Feather had the door open now.

Spook ran back and forth between me and the tub, whining.

I stared at Lynx. “Kyle was there attempting to play his guitar, but the strings are broken.” I frowned. “He knows it’s broken. Maybe he was trying to tell me something. Do guitar strings have any energy? Do you think we could throw strings through there? Maybe he can close it if he has the strings?”