Out Of The Dark (13 page)

I flicked it away like a stray piece of lint.
I didn't want that kind of grief right now--this wasn't the
time.

You said something about protecting
Daniel?

He cocked his head to the side and smiled
again. "You need to act fast--destroy the Betrayer."

Why should I believe anything you say?

He shrugged. "Because as you misfits sit
around in there and eat your food and talk, the Betrayer has
already discovered who you are--and what."

The icy feeling along my back froze my entire
body solid. Fear like nothing I could remember before had me in its
grip.
You mean…you mean Bonville knows what I am?

"Would I lie to you?"

Yes
.

I wasn't in the mood to argue who had what
minions at that moment. I took a step closer--and he backed up. I
mean the spook literally vanished from the chair and reappeared
behind it.

Wha--?

His expression didn't tell me anything about
what he was thinking. But--was he afraid of me?

TC held up the index finger of his right
hand. On it he wore a silver ring with a skull on it. Typical.
"Cautious."

Stop reading my mind.

"Stop thinking so loud, Wraith." He held out
his hands, palms up. "Do you want to hear how we can be mutually
beneficial to one another?"

Gimme back my voice first.

He shook his head. "No can do, lover. Are you
open to hearing my offer?"

His use of the word lover just pissed me off.
And I knew he was goading me on purpose.

And then something dawned on me. I'm usually
the first person who will admit to being a secret blonde--I don't
always follow the obvious. And sometimes I see things no one else
sees which irritates the hell out of Rhonda on more than one
occasion.

As I looked at TC, and I mean really looked
at him, I realized he didn't seem to be as menacing as he had been
before. He seemed almost diminished--like there was a vital piece
of him missing. Had it been my Wraithy Wail that did this to him?
Or something else? Making the deal with me--had he broken
some--

You're in service again
, the thought
came unbidden, but I knew I was right.

The look on his face told me I had nailed it.
TC the bad-ass Archer wasn't an independent anymore, but a Symbiont
in service to the Phantasm. Just like he'd been in the beginning
before his encounter with me had set him apart.

What's wrong with you?

He straightened up, and seemed to grow in
size. "There is nothing wrong with me!"

When I didn't move or flinch, standing on the
porch with my hands in my pockets, he calmed down. "When our
connection was made, the Phantasm wasn't aware of it and I was able
to separate long enough to grow strong."

Ahhh…but when you made the
deal
with me the Phantasm knew--he was there.

"And he took advantage of
that
," he
looked away and I could see his profile. Yep, Vin Diesel. "I have
been in his service ever since."

And you think by me helping you--

Hunh. Helping him what?

He looked at me and took a step closer, his
duster flaring out about him and he clasped his hands behind his
back. "The Betrayer is the same as before--not in identity but in
greed. They sought a contract with the Phantasm--wishing eternal
life and wealth. And as you know, the Phantasm can grant such
things."

Yadda, yadda.

I made rotating motion with the index finger
of my right hand. Speed it up.

TC glared at me. Like that was new? "They
were given a Symbiont and a contract set. Only the Betrayer wanted
even more. So the Phantasm offered them eternal life--"

He can do that?

"Ever heard of the undead?"

Never mind.

TC moved to the edge of the porch and looked
up at the moon. It was full and cast his face in a blue hue. I
realized then he wasn't wearing his shades.

Wait…where did the moon come from? And where
had the wind gone? Too late I realized everything around us had
calmed. Still. As if frozen in time. I couldn't hear the others
either.

"But eternal life comes at a
price--
four
souls. Each one taken simultaneously during the
Fain-Dun ritual of the Seventh Black Seal."

I glared at him.
Did you make that up?
'Cause that totally sounds made up.

"The Phantasm has a love of the theatrical.
The ritual was created to transfer eternal life--and during it the
four sacrifices are killed and the Phantasm increases his power by
giving the fool an undead existence," he turned and looked at me.
"Seven out of ten undead go insane after the first one hundred
years. They never last for eternity. And the Symbionts return the
souls to the Phantasm anyway."

Four sacrifices. Four initiated idiots. I
thought of Dags.
Are these sacrifices marked?

"Might be. I'm not the ritual expert." He
turned completely from the moon and crossed his arms over his
chest.

What happened?

TC nodded. "One of the sacrifices didn't
work--like plugging in a bad Christmas bulb. Made everything else
short circuit. In order to cover up the blunder the Betrayer used a
forbidden spell to shove the physical bodies of the sacrifices into
the Abysmal plane."

Oh geez…the other guardians.
Did he only
put three in?

"Thirteen."

Thirteen? I thought there was only supposed
to be four?

"They were overcompensating for their
blunder."

Shit. Now I know for sure where all those
people went.

"Wraith--placing a physical body inside the
Abysmal is like befouling the most holy of sacraments." He arched
an eyebrow. "Imagine pouring menstrual blood in the vestal of the
church."

Oh god… the very thought turned my
stomach.

"Physical bodies in the Abysmal plane cannot
survive--and so they dissolve. Painfully. And the remaining soul is
tainted--neither living nor dead. Neither Abysmal or Ethereal.
They're like gunk in the pipes. They're a cancer in a healthy
heart."

Like nuts in a brownie?

And to my surprise he nodded. "Like this they
are no use to the Phantasm. You call them Shadow Folk--Shadow
People--we call them irritants. And they can only be destroyed by
one means."

And somehow I knew that was me.
And this
is where I come in. So the Phantasm told you to contact me to get
rid of the Shadows?

"I'm contacting you because we can help each
other. We can destroy the Betrayer and I can retrieve the
contracts."

I thought of the contract in the house, the
one the Shadow People had showed me.

"They'll be drawn to you and your
power--"

Oh great.

"--and then they can be destroyed by your
hand. Once they're gone I can take my revenge--" he paused and
smiled. "The Phantasm's due on the Betrayer."

I wasn't all that happy about delivering up
the soul of any human being to the Phantasm. But then--Bonville had
done some pretty awful things to innocent human beings. I thought
of Dags and wondered if those marks on his hands would ever go
away--or could they be removed at all?

It also scared me how close he'd been to
falling bodily into the Abysmal plane.

And I really didn't believe this
ass-wipe.

What's in it for you?

He looked shocked.

Oh get off it--you don't do anything unless
you benefit from it.

He held out his hands and bowed deep,
actually bending on one knee. "Ah--I must once again marvel at your
complexity."

Ass-hat.

"And your vocabulary. Yes--there is something
I get out of it. But that something shall remain mine to keep if
you want your dear cop protected."

I actually didn't want this bastard anywhere
near Daniel--my love was in this pickle because of the Archer. This
creature was the cause of all the wacky-ness in my life since I
first saw him murder William Tanaka.

We have a maybe.

TC bowed again.

So when do we do this?

"You'll know--on the appointed hour."

Something banged like a door slamming.
"Zoë!"

I blinked. And TC was gone. The night sounds
of nearby traffic on Euclid returned, as did the cold wind. I
turned and looked to see Rhonda standing in the doorway looking at
me.

"What's up? Why did you come out here? And
what the hell were you staring at?"

It was obvious she hadn't seen TC, which I'm
sure he arranged. Part of me wanted to tell her what'd just
happened--but for some reason I just smiled and nodded before
following her back inside the cozy shop.

Everyone was still in place, though Tim was
absent. Where had Steve gone?

"Honey," Mom said before I sat down. "What
were you doing out there?"

I pointed to my head before I stripped off my
coat.

"You were
thinking
?"

Geez mom…you didn't have to look so
shocked.

I found my board on the papasan where I'd
left it and erased it as I sat down. After I was done scribbling I
held up the board. CAN SYMBIONTS EAT SF?

Everyone gave me a blank stare on that one.
Mom's lips flattened. Uh oh. I got her thinking. That could be
bad.

"Zoë," Rhonda frowned at me. "Why do you want
to know that?"

I didn't want to tell them about TC just yet
so I needed to make something up really quick. I erased and
scribbled, trying to write smaller to fit more on the board. WHEN I
SEE DUDE AT HOSP. I HAD FEEL OF SYMBIONT.

Dags cocked his head sideways. "And?"

"Wait, wait, wait," Rhonda nodded at me. "Zoë
can sense Symbionts, right? Or you get that metallic thing you
talked about before. But you did sense it with Bonville--and
Maureen's journal said he got the Symbiont before he demanded
more."

I scribbled a bit more. BUT NOT THERE.

Dags' eyebrows rose high on his forehead.
"Maybe you sensed just like, the residual? So--where did the
symbiont go if it's not inside of Bonville?"

I held out my hands--that wasn't why I
asked--but it sure as hell was a poignant question. And it threw
everyone off the real reason why I asked. Uh…so it did.

I re-scribbled on board and held it up. SO
CAN SYMB EAT SF?

Rhonda shrugged. So did Dags. Mom answered.
"Symbionts consume the essence of the living. Some like the Archer
consume it all at once, gaining a lot of strength--so much that he
didn't need a body. But then Rollins' symbiont had fed off his soul
for years improving his health. Which is the power that Hirokumi
wanted."

"So does a Shadow Folk have a soul?" Rhonda
asked.

"Well--I think the part that remains
is--was--the soul once the body dissolves. Being trapped like that
might just deform the soul, twisting it into something ugly."

Gross.

"Well, I say we call it a night," Nona said
as she stood. The wicker chair created beneath her. "Tomorrow
night's the full moon--and the store's gonna have a sale on white
candles and Frankincense, so I need sleep." She pointed to Dags.
"You need to sleep here. Rhonda, are you staying?"

The look of dreamy in her eyes made me
physically want to puke. But then, how often had she put up with
that look on me when I thought about Daniel?

Ah poop.

She nodded. "I can make him a nice bed on the
couch."

I waved at them to get their attention even
as I stood up. I made the motion of me getting in a car and going
home. I pointed to mom and made the turn-the-key motion to say I
needed to borrow her car.

"You sure you wanna go home?"

I nodded. My condo was warded, and I'd been
missing from it for a while. I needed to get back there and do a
little living in it. I also needed some space to think, and muse
over what TC said as well as think of a way I could totally screw
him up.

But, Elizabeth the Volvo didn't go home--it
drove to the hospital instead. Seeing as it was after one in the
morning--the nurses no matter who they are--weren't going to let me
in on the floor to see Daniel. So I found a great parking spot, let
the seat back and slipped out of my body.

As I walked/jogged the parking garage, the
elevator, the walkway to the hospital, and then in the atrium where
I'd seen Mr. Spooky, and then up to Daniel's room, I really wished
Wraiths could teleport. That would save sooooo much time.

The hall was quiet, as most of the patients
were safely drugged in their beds. I tip-toed past the nurse's
station to Daniel's room and sieved through the door. Ew.
Metal.

Daniel was as peaceful as ever, though the
room was bland. They wouldn't allow him any sort of flowers or
decoration in CCU. But that was okay. I just loved seeing him.

And then I heard a wretched noise.

It was a snore.

Captain Ken Cooper was sound asleep in the
fold out seat, his shoes and clothes still on, his head thrown back
and his trench coat over him like a blanket. His mouth was open and
I was amazed at how much like a child he was.

I was also touched that he was still here, in
the room with Daniel.
Awwww
.

I went to my baby, but not too close. I
learned close proximity to a Wraith in a hospital room could be bad
ju-ju. But I looked at the monitors that were starting to get a
little snowy and tried to check his vitals.

The door opened then and two nurses came
in.

"Wha--" Cooper said as he came awake.
"Freeze…."

It wasn't Miss Tiarra tonight, but an Indian
woman with a very stern expression on. "You're not supposed to be
here."

Cooper wiped at his face and glared at her.
"I'm a cop--so sue me." He stretched as the two women started
working on the machines. One of them actually smacked the side of
it. "What time is it? And what the hell are you two doing?"

The larger woman shook her head. "It's way
past visiting hours, detective. And this machine's acting crazy.
Getting all fuzzy in here--and if you see it out there at the
station, it's blank. Like this poor guy's gone all flat-line."