Revenant (33 page)

Mental note:
this is freak’n crazy!

Though his purple thing didn’t hit me, it felt as if it’d zapped something ’cause I got dizzy. Maybe it was supposed to do that? You know, make me defend myself so he could zap energy cells.

Villains were cunning like that.

I called up the sword I’d used against the Horror. It’d been different then—all flaming and such. Now it looked like a combination of both ice and fire. Opposites in the planes. I waved it like a big stick and pointed it at him like they did in animes—and damned if it didn’t shoot out a white light at him.

I squinted at the bright show and realized I’d signaled “Hey, we’re over here!” to just about anybody within a five-mile radius.

I opened my eyes and staggered, seeing him do the same thing. Though I wasn’t sure if that was because I got him or because Joe’s body was giving out. How much of it was Symbiont and how much human power? I needed to get him out of Joe’s body. And that led me to a whole new string of thoughts.

I liked it when I got those.

Phanty had shown himself to me incorporeal several times, as simply a visual of someone. As a clown once, and as a hooded man at the construction site the night I made the deal with TC. And again in the hospital when we were fighting over the Eidolon. It was possible he could manifest as something in the physical plane.

So, why was he actually in a body this time? The only answer I had was that he had intended on manipulating the physical. He needed to touch something
physically
in this plane.

And all I could think about was the book.

But which one?

“They’re over there!”

“Don’t shout, asshole!”

Well, thanks to Lieutenant Asshole, we knew they were coming. I charged forward with my sword again, intent on ramming him with it, thinking maybe I could bounce him out of Joe’s body or something. What I hadn’t counted on was him counterattacking with something of his own.

Joe’s body.

I saw him throw himself in front of the sword and altered the attack just in time, nearly skewering Joe right through the center. The movement cost me momentum and balance, and I would have fallen if I hadn’t unfurled my wings and moved up a little. But not before Phanty made this incredible roll and jump, reaching up and grabbing my ankle right above my bunny slipper.

He yanked me down and tossed me like a dog tosses a toy in his mouth, throwing me a good hundred feet into another fucking pine.

I lay on the grassy ground as a hooded figure jumped on top of me. I reached up to toss this bastard off, thinking it was one of Rhonda’s men, when the hood fell back and I saw his face.

Oh shit!
And he had me in a very precarious position.

My eyes nearly bugged out of my head as I hesitated, and he grabbed both of my wrists and held them to the ground at my sides. He came closer, and I could see—he looked good. He was going to kill me—but he’d look good doing it.

I expected he would shoot me or stab me, or maybe even use some spell he’d found or something. What I didn’t expect was for him to kiss me.

Long, deep, and hard.

He tasted like wintergreen. Not like a breath mint, but really of wintergreen. I found myself in a wood of ferns and tall, gnarled trees decorated in moss. And he was over me. But the voice in my head was purely feminine.

I looked up at him, not sure if this was a dream or if maybe Rhonda had some nice Tolkien-looking spring meadow on her property. No . . . I could still feel his lips on mine. Somewhere.

With that, the meadow faded, and I was under Daniel. He was pulling back now, letting go of my arms. And I was human again, looking up at the man I’d loved, who’d tried to kill me.

He smiled. “Zoë . . . I’m sorry. I am. I love you, and I don’t want anything to happen to you.” He reached under his robe and produced one of Randall Kemp’s stun guns. “I took this from the police station. Use it.”

“Over here!”

“It’s Detective Halloran! He’s been shot!”

Daniel looked up as we both heard branches cracking under boots. He smiled at me and stood, then helped me to my feet. “I wish you’d told me . . . about the Wraith. I would have understood.”

I moved closer to him and tentatively reached up to touch his face. It was real. He was real. And he was . . . “Daniel . . . what happened? You’re not . . . you don’t want to kill me . . .”

“No.” He shook his head.

And then I sensed it. A Symbiont. And as I looked at him I realized . . . no, not a Symbiont.

A First Born.

He was hosting a Revenant now.

And a name came to me from the pages of the book.
Inanna
. “You were in the shop. You took the copies.”

“I tried to. But they were already gone.”

“There he is!’

And, abruptly, Daniel was gone.

I stood by that tree in the dark, and as they came closer, I tucked the gun under my shirt in the back of my pants. Six or so armed Society agents appeared. Rhonda and Gunter came as well.

“It was Detective Frasier,” a voice was saying in the dark. Joe’s voice. “He attacked me, then went after Zoë.”

That bastard was still inside of him. Lying. I waited until he came forward, helped along by Mom.

Rhonda looked at me. “Was it Daniel? Did you see him?”

I narrowed my eyes at Joe. “No, it wasn’t Daniel.” And then I pulled the gun, aimed, and fired at Joe.

The blast was brighter than I remembered, but it had the same effect. I’m afraid I kinda caught my mother in the blast as well, but I wasn’t going to let that thing linger inside of Joe any longer.

People yelled out, and before I knew it, I was on my front with someone’s knee in my back and a gun to the back of my head. Growling, I shifted to Wraith just as one of the bastards fired, then I went incorporeal. The shot went though my left shoulder, and it smarted pretty bad. I stood and faced the one who did that, shoving my hand inside of his chest.
Asshole . . . you do
not
shoot me. And just for that, I’ll take a little of your miserable life to heal me!

“Zoë!”

I wasn’t insane. I was
pissed off
. And when I’d taken my fill of his soul, I turned and pointed at the creature now rolling on the floor a foot behind Joe’s still body. “There it is, Rhonda. Shoot it!”

All eyes turned to see the form shift and move as it turned into something more understandable. Once again, it became Mr. Muscles in the hoodie with the hidden face. He pointed at me. “That bitch gave you that gun. But it won’t help you. Tell my sister that—tell all of them I will come for them and destroy each of them just as I destroyed Yamato.”

I waited a few beats before clapping.

Yes, I got the look of the utterly insane from those around me, but I just had to reward genius. “That is so much bullshit.” I stepped over the body of the idiot that shot me (no he wasn’t dead, but he wasn’t going to be digesting food well for a while) and approached the Phantasm. Nona and a Society medic were over Joe, treating the wound in his neck. The whole area was lit up from Society flashlights as well as mine and Phanty’s luminescence.

Did I spell that right?

“You are so full of bullshit. You have so many people afraid of you . . . but not me. No . . . because I just realized who you are.”

THAT got some serious looks, not just from everyone around me but from the Phantasm as well. He reached up and pulled his hood back, revealing the same chiseled redheaded man I’d seen before. He looked like a singer, a rock star, and he was neither. “How dare you . . .”

“Oh, I dare all right,” I said. Now . . . let’s get something straight. I am
not
this brave. And I was shaking all over. But I wanted to push the situation. I wanted to know what it knew. I wanted . . .

I wanted . . .

I didn’t know what I wanted anymore. I had Daniel’s kiss lingering on my lips but Dags on my mind.

Puffing up, I stalked forward even closer. In this form, I knew he had no power. What I didn’t know was why.

But I would. Soon.

“You.” I pointed at him. “You betrayed your father . . . took his throne . . . tricked your siblings into becoming Revenants, then stripped your youngest brother of his memories and his power so that he could do your bidding as you waged war with the Ethereal plane. Am I right? It was you that caused the barriers to be raised. It was you that shut down communication with the Seraphim. You brought the heart of darkness.”

To be honest, I had no idea where this shit was coming from until I noticed my left wrist glowing gold again. And then I knew.

These were Inanna’s words, coming through the book.

And they pissed him off.

Oh, they so pissed off the Phantasm.

Rhonda took a hesitant step away from Joe. Everyone stood still, the agents with their guns drawn, keeping their eyes glued on something they could or couldn’t see. I didn’t know. “Zoë . . . the Phantasm has a name?”

“Yes. It’s—”

SILENCE!!

That one word blew past me and around me. I winced as the wind kicked up. Trees fell backward, debris spun up and out. A few of the agents went flying backward. I saw Mom and Rhonda bend down over Joe. When it was over with, it looked as if we were standing at ground zero, and everything else was flattened.

But from what I could see, no one was hurt. Not seriously.

No . . . even now the Phantasm hadn’t actually hurt anyone.

And . . . he was gone.

I sighed and picked myself out of the debris, shifting back to human so as not to freak out the agents as I tried to help those who got blowed back (yes I meant to say it that way). Two of the agents worked to pick up Joe and carry him back to the warehouse. Rhonda gave orders to get him back to the estate and under lock and key.

“He’ll be fine,” I said. I realized I was still holding the gun. “This thing blows out the possessing spirit pretty good.”

But she was staring at me, as was Mom. Two of the Revenants were there as well, Loki and Erishkegal. Their clothing had seen better days. “How . . . how did you get that gun. They’re all locked up. And how did you know that the Phantasm was inside Joe?”

Okay. Here’s where I wasn’t sure whether to tell them the truth about Daniel—that he was hosting a Revenant now—or about who the Phantasm was.

But then that decision was taken away as one of the agents, along with the Revenant named Dagda, came running up. “Ma’am! It’s Jason! He’s gone!”

Okay, the disappearing-man chapter ending is getting OLD!

I
ran faster than anyone else and got to the warehouse. Apparently, it hadn’t gone unharmed by the Phantasm’s words as he fled. The roof had caved in, taking with it most of the drop ceiling in the front. The area where Lex’s body rested was almost unscathed, having had wards put up by Mom and Rhonda. Nick was there, looking completely unhinged.

I grabbed at him and took him to the side. His skin was hot. “Nick—what happened?”

“I don’t know. I was here . . . and Jason was on the phone. He’s always on the phone. And I noticed that you and Joe had gone through the door. I followed for a while, and I saw him start to choke you. I came back into the room to tell Jason—but he wasn’t there. His car is still outside. And his phone was on the ground.”

Something . . . took him. For something to take a Revenant—especially one as powerful as Mephistopheles—oh fuck. “Nick, did you recognize all the Revenants here tonight?”

“Yes. There wasn’t anyone strange. I just can’t figure out where he vanished to.”

“Can you sense him?”

Nick shook his head. “That’s just it—I can’t. It’s like he’s just disappeared off the planet. Normally, I can close my eyes and feel him. But he’s been cut off—”

“Maybe behind a barrier?”

Rhonda put her hands to her mouth. “Oh fuck.”

We turned to her. “What now?” I asked, a little more irritated than I wanted to sound.

But Rhonda wasn’t looking at me. We were standing in the ritual room, near the body. The double doors leading outside to where Joe and I had been were open. Rhonda pointed at them, and we looked.

There, standing a good distance from the warehouse, at the tree line, was a figure, glowing softly. And I knew instantly who it was.

Adiran Martinique.

My father.

“I’ll go.” I started forward.

Mom reached out to me and took my hand. She moved in front of me and smiled. “He’s not the same man, Zoë. Even in your dreams where he can be himself. Like this”—she glanced behind her—“he’s different.”

I knew that. Somehow. “And we’re on opposite sides?”

“No.” She put her hands to my face. “Not really. And I think a part of him knows that. But, well . . . until you deal with the Ethereal, you can’t really explain it. But you’ll learn why he couldn’t stay with me anymore, or with you.”

I wasn’t sure I wanted to know that. But I squeezed her wrists and moved away from her to the doors and into the night. The closer I came to him, the more distinguished he looked. Not like in a gentlemanly way . . . but in his features. He looked like I remembered him from my childhood.

Blurry.

With each step, I realized I was shifting, changing again. And I paused halfway there because—my hands weren’t a dark, mottled black anymore but a soft, glowing gray. I looked at my slippers, and they weren’t angry. They were white, and their pink noses were back. I took more steps and felt my wings unfurl and knew somehow they were no longer black but white. Every step changed me until I stood in front of him.