Revenant (20 page)

The Revenant nodded. “Of course. Where did you think it was?”

“I guess I hadn’t thought about it,” I said. “I mean—I’ve seen the Veil that Rhonda uses where she puts things around her to hide them. I guess I sort of thought this was the same thing.”

“No.” Jason shook his head, and this time I could hear the First Born clearly in my head. “My understanding—from what Rhonda told me—was that Darren was dying. Rodriguez had stripped him of his will to live—damaged his heart so badly he wasn’t going to survive. His Familiars were too weak to heal him. So she used a very old spell, one she’d found in the Grimoire itself, and fused his heart, and soul, to the power of the book.”

“But”—I looked down at him again—“it looks as if this new book has, in a way, fused itself to the old one.”

“Oh?” He narrowed his eyes. “Interesting.”

“Interesting?” I blinked at him. “Jason . . . Mephisto . . . whoever you are . . . what exactly is happening? I mean what happens if they do fuse?”

“Why don’t you look inside and find out?”

Jason and I straightened and turned together. TC stood in front of one of the windows, his front shadowed from the light filtering in from the streetlamp. Jason immediately moved around me and approached TC. “Archer.”

“Hello, Mephisto. I see you survived the rowan?”

Well, I guess Dags was right—he’d given TC back his own voice. It was deep and nicely melodic.

“How dare you attack
me
.”

I noticed Jason’s voice was no longer his own. In fact, I wasn’t sure if Jason Lawrence was at home at all.

TC took a step forward, not even the least bit afraid. “How dare
you
put the Wraith in danger like that. You knew what could happen if she released a ghoul, and yet you and that damned bitch pushed her to do it. You need to learn truth, you old ass. Something you Revenants discard like old shoes.”

I frowned. I was missing something here. Something important. And though I wanted to know more—
hell, add this to the list of things I want answers to
—it really wasn’t the time. “Jason . . . Mephistopheles . . . not now, okay? TC, what did you mean look inside?”

TC glared at Jason as he pushed the Revenant aside and stood by me. “You still retain the ability to overshadow, as you did with Mialani and Aether’s host. Take a look inside and remove the bullet. You can do it better than that witch.”

I looked at Dags. He was breathing shallow. And—it made sense. I waited for a protest from Mephistopheles, but none came. He’d turned and was watching me. Taking in a deep breath, I moved my hand toward Dags’s chest, just to the right of the protruding book, and pushed in. To my amazement, my hand
did
go through Dags’s flesh, and into his chest. I closed my eyes and looked inside as well, using my hand as my eyes.

Amazing . . . it was like having a tiny camera attached to my fingers. Okay . . . that image was gross. It wasn’t that I saw organs and blood and bone, but more of the ebb and flow of his aura as it moved throughout his body. Most of the colors for him were dark blue and purple. But in the center, below his rib cage, there was a concentration of red and yellow. Angry colors.

I could see the book—the original Grimoire—and the smaller book was somehow pushed into its side. As I moved closer I realized—the bullet was
in
the Grimoire. Somehow, an astral item had stopped a physical intrusion.

In order to get the bullet, I was going to have to open the book. To open the book, I was going to have to remove the smaller one. Before I could do anything, I felt a coldness along my spine and realized I was no longer alone.

TC was inside.

What are you doing?
I asked him.

Awww.
TC’s voice was more than a little sour.
Is the big bad Wraithy afraid she’ll hurt her wuver?

Fuck off,
and I shouldered him away as best as I could in the astral state.

That he did—when TC had tried to kill him by suffocation. I’d wondered why TC had started wearing gloves. Evidently what happens in the astral doesn’t stay in the astral.
He also gave you back your voice.

Well, duh.
I moved my hand slowly, watching Dags’s reaction both in his physical being and his astral. He flinched once or twice, and when he moaned, I stopped again. Waiting, I slowly gripped the spine of the smaller book and got one freak’n hell of an electric shock. When I jerked my hand back, the book came with it, out of the astral and back into the plane of the physical.

I sat on the bed, staring at the book as my body shifted from Wraith to human. It looked less like a Grimoire of some kind and more like someone’s journal. Like Jules Verne or someone like him. It was maybe five inches by eight and a half, hand-tooled leather, and hand-stitched in the binding. A leather thong held the book together.

“Let me see that,” Jason said as he moved forward.

But before either of us could react, TC grabbed the book from my hands—

And was gone.

That simple.

“Shit!” I said, getting to my feet.

“Shit what?” Mom asked as she, Jemmy, and Rhonda came through the door. They were each carrying handfuls of stuff, all wrapped in blankets. They looked like the Three Wise Men bearing gifts.

Nothing could have prepared me for the look of pure incredulousness on their faces when they looked at Dags—with no book sticking out of his chest. Mom dropped her bundle. Jemmy crossed herself.

“Shit!” Rhonda said.

I pointed to Rhonda. “See?”

JUST
as Mom was about to lay into me, two flashes of light appeared to my left. Alice and Maureen materialized, both dressed in their full Familiar regalia (which was basically Valkyrie anime strategic armor). Alice’s light was white, Maureen’s a deep red. Alice crouched and looked at me. I smiled and waved.

She then turned to see Dags on the bed and hissed. Immediately, the two of them shifted costumes, swords gone, and moved in to put their hands on their Guardian.

I somehow got the impression I’d popped a cork.

“Where is the book?” Mom said as she came forward and yanked me out of the way. Rhonda did a similar movement with Jason, who looked as if his entire attention was taken up by what the two women were doing.

I swallowed. “I took it out.”

“How did you do that?” Rhonda hissed.

“I just reached in and grabbed it.” I sighed. “The bullet is in the Grimoire, and I needed to remove the book to open the Grimoire to—”

“NO!”

GAH . . . !
If there was one thing Rhonda Orly had, it was lungs of steel. I put my hands to my head and whirled on her. Her eyes were bright and her complexion pale. “WHAT. THE. HELL?”

“Please tell me you didn’t open the book?”

I frowned, keeping my hands protectively over my ears. “What book?”

“The Grimoire?”

“No, I never got that far.”

Mom whirled me around to her. “Did you open the small book?”

“No. I didn’t open any book. I just pulled it out, and TC took it. He snatched it—”

“WHAT!”

GAH . . . ! Stop that!
Both of them yelled that time, and I moved away to stand beside Jemmy and Jason, where it was less noisy. “What is with you two?”

“How did TC get in here and get the book?” Rhonda said.

“I have this place warded,” Mom said.

“Yeah, well, they don’t work. He found a way in,” I muttered. “And he took it.”

Both women were quiet for a while as Jemmy handed me her bundle and moved to where Dags lay, his body enveloped in a soft golden light. The girls were leaning over him, their eyes closed in concentration. I just hoped Jemmy didn’t bother them.

“You just stuck your hand inside him?” Rhonda was apparently stuck on that part.

“Yes, just like I stuck my hand in Mialani and in Aether’s host. Now what is the big deal?”

“Zoetrope—”

God, I hated it when she said that.

“You are not to stick your hands into anyone else, do I make myself clear?”

“Wraith!” Alice called out.

I closed the distance between us. “What is it?”

“I’ve laid the book open just enough to remove the bullet—but I need you to reach inside and take it. Only you can do this.”

I turned and looked at Mom. “Can I?”

She glared at me as I shifted back to Wraith and repeated what I’d done before, easing through the golden light, which kinda tickled, then through the physical flesh to the astral, where I could see the book once again. The book was half-open just as she said it was, and I could see the bullet clearly, embedded in the paper.

With my tongue stuck out, I moved closer, getting a grip on the bullet.

“Just don’t touch the book,” Maureen said in a sour voice.

“What?”

“Don’t touch the book.”

“Why not?” My hesitation caused me to move, and my knuckle touched the book.

Dags gave out a low moan, and I looked at his face. He winced in pain, and I felt my heart flutter. At the same time, I also started seeing flashes of symbols across my eyes, until a scroll of them appeared like a superimposed image over the scene. The scroll rolled itself up and moved to my left hand, where it tucked itself nice and neat into TC’s mark.

“Zoë!”

Oh. Right.
I looked down again, and this time carefully grabbed the bullet with the thumb and index finger of my hand. Willing it to stick to my astral fingers, I carefully pulled it free of the book, out of it, then through the flesh. Once it was done, I went solid again and held it out.

Dags abruptly hissed and started to move. Maureen and Alice became solid as well and pressed him down.

“What’s wrong?” I asked as I moved back.

Alice looked at Nona. “We could use your help now.”

And then I was suddenly shunted aside and replaced by the three wise ladies. Jason touched my shoulder and pulled me closer, his voice low. “What did you see?”

I frowned at him. “See?”

“When you touched the book. I know you touched it because of the boy’s reaction. What did you see?”

I wanted to tell him. I really did. But there was something ringing in my ears, something warning me that saying anything about it was a bad idea. That what I’d seen wasn’t something that needed to be known. “I didn’t see anything. But it shocked the hell out of me. Just like that other book did.” I tried to see around them. “But I was more concerned with Dags.”

Jason narrowed his eyes, and I realized with a double take I was actually talking to Jason, not Mephistopheles. “So—I’m trying to understand the relationships. Rhonda and Joe are dating—but Joe is always watching you. You and Dags have had intercourse—”

“Who told you that?”

“No one. The astral ties are strong, especially for you.” He smiled. “But you two have had sex.”

And maybe a couple of months ago I’d have said yeah, we had sex. But—saying that made it sound cheap. And what I’d had with Dags—let’s face it—was not cheap and dirty. “We made love, yes.”

“But you pretend you don’t love each other.”

“It’s complicated.”

“I’ll say. Because what’s really confusing is this relationship between you and the crazy cop.”

Okay. End of conversation. I was done. I held up my left hand—the one not holding the bullet. “Can we skip this subject and discuss you and my mom?”

He stared at me, blinking. “That was a long time ago, Zoë. Before your father ever entered into Nona’s life.”

I finally dropped the façade of sarcasm and really looked at him. “You looked the same then, didn’t you?”

“Yes. And after a while, when I learned who her great-uncle was—and understanding his work—I confessed to her one night what I was.”

“And she didn’t freak?”

“No, but she did start wearing a lot of turtlenecks.”

He grinned. I smacked him.

“Seriously,” he said. “I was honest with your mother, and my honesty paid off one night when a group of Fetches came after me. I’d allowed Mephistopheles to be seen.” He used finger quotes around the word
seen
. “Which wasn’t smart. I put up a fight, but I was badly wounded. Your mother—having listened to me—knew exactly what to do.”

“Just like she did the other night?”

“Yep.” He smiled. “It wasn’t long after that she went to work for Domas. And she met Adiran Martinique.”

I sighed as I looked at his face. “She does love the dark ones, doesn’t she?”

He echoed my amusement. “We remained friends. I’ve kept in touch with her, and we’ve perpetuated myths about us in the Dioscuri notes.”

“So.” I got it . . . “You put lies in there, to keep anyone from really discovering what you were.”

“Exactly. And your mother has been an asset to me many times. I did what I could for the two of you after Adiran vanished. But Nona is a proud woman and wouldn’t let me take you in.”

I got the feeling just from looking at the man’s suits and shoes that he had money. And the thought that during my youth we could have been living the life of luxury instead of scrimping by really annoyed me. But I understood her pride. And her fear. “She wanted to be free of the Society.”

“And L-6 in turn.” He nodded. “We Revenants have our own group and our own cliques. The older ones tend to hang together. The ones who’ve lived more lifetimes. All but one has answered me: Inanna. Aether’s response was almost immediate, confirming for me that we had all received that note. Aether was the first to become a Revenant. Unfortunately, he is now the first to die by the spell possibly buried in that ancient book.”