Soul Cage (10 page)

It wasn't
there.

He stood in the center of
the room and stared at the fireplace. Azrael appeared beside him.
"Joe?"

"It always sat up there,
even after we got it back from the police. It was right there," he
pointed to the mantle. "Nona said she believed it was there." He
moved forward and put his hand in the spot. Cold. Not even the
trace of the thing. "It's been gone a while."

"The purpose of the dragon
is to capture souls," Azrael said.

Just like it had taken
Nona's soul, and then Tim and Steve. Joe frowned as he looked away
from the mantel. Zoë had freed the ghosts after she broke
it—

"Joe?"

"Azrael—Zoë broke that
dragon. I remember her doing it in the basement."

The Phantasm crossed his
arms over his chest. "You sure? I mean…that kiss probably drained
all the blood from your big head…"

"Fuck you, Phanty," Joe
rubbed at his face. "How can this be possible—it was here long
after that. In fact, I remember it being here when Daniel was
possessed by the Horror. But…I saw it broken…"

"Maybe there's more than
one?"

"Yeah…"

But why was it
important?

Joe leaned on the mantle.
The thing captured souls, so why had he dreamed about it—and it had
eaten him? Why had he seen it when he was wishing for a way to stop
Rhonda? There was no way he was going to try and trap her soul
inside of it. Since that was the artifact's only function
then…

He straightened up.
Weren't First Borns, in a sense, disembodied souls?

Oh no… no it can't be that
easy.

Unless…

"Joe? You look somewhat
surprised."

No…that wasn't possible,
was it? I mean, had she taken it to use it specifically for that
reason? Or did she have it and it was just a convenient way
to…

"Joe?"

"TC," he turned and
grabbed the Phantasm's jacket sleeve. "I know where Morgan
is."

•••

It took over an hour to
get back to the Society House. Nona was in the infirmary with Dags
so Joe went straight to Security with Azrael popping in out around
him. Once at the records desk, he called up the camera footage from
the archive room where Manuel was found. Originally the footage
didn't give them any answers, but Joe hoped it was because they
were looking at the wrong thing.

Azrael popped in and stood
by the door, facing Joe.

Fast forwarding through he
stopped when he saw Manuel walk from the archive room into the
storage room. The angle of the camera was designed to show maximum
archive area, to show the computers. But there was a small sliver
of the storage room visible in the upper left hand corner. He
zeroed in on that corner and refreshed several times. He sharpened
and cleaned up the noise.

"Joe—"

"I see it." And there it
was. It was only a half image since the other half was hidden by
the storage room door.

The stone
dragon.

He stood and headed down
to the archives and storage room. Of course, it wasn't where he'd
seen it.

"Did you really expect it
was still here?" Azrael said.

"Not helping, Phanty," Joe
closed his eyes and this time he wanted to find the stone dragon.
The need was there. The desire and then suddenly, he had an image.
"Its in her closet."

"Are you sure?"

He opened his eyes and
looked at Azrael. "Trust me. I lived with her for a while. I know
how disorganized her closet is. There's only one
problem."

"Getting into her closet
without her knowing?"

"Yeeeeah." Joe moved past
him back into the archive room. "The only way I'm going to get in
there without her knowing is shield myself. But I can't get past
the Boggarts on the door without Nona's help and then there's
Rhonda's own wards inside."

Azrael said, "You could
give her what she wants—if only for a few minutes."

"You mean
Dags?"

"Yeah. I think if she sees
him and is near him it'll be enough of a distraction you can run in
and grab the dragon."

"True," and it would work.
But they'd have to make sure she couldn't hurt Dags. "There just
one problem."

"What's that?"

He ran a hand through his
hair. "Nona's never going to let Rhonda spend time alone with Dags
right now." Joe refocused on the Phantasm. "It's going to be harder
to convince Nona to let Rhonda out of that room and near Dags then
getting the dragon itself. And once I do get the dragon," he
shrugged. "How do you get a First Born's soul out?"

-10-

Jason stepped into Dags'
room and motioned to get Nona's attention. He had a job to do,
something Mephistopheles wasn't relishing. Which was why he'd left
the task to his Revenant.

The infirmary was housed
three floors underground in the most secure area of the new Society
House. Taking up the lowest floor, the infirmary was also part of
the tunnel system connected to the garage that would allow a secret
escape in case a patient or a prominent member of the Society
needed to depart in secret. The farthest end of the main hall ended
at a steel door that was on a twenty four seven watch from the
Security station, monitored by motion sensors and a card-key. Only
a few had that card. And even fewer knew the pass code.

Beyond that door were
seven vehicles of various makes and models, each available for what
ever purpose was necessary at the time.

Dags was sequestered into
the room closest to the door, along with Manuel. There had been no
change in Manuel's condition—something Jason hoped Joe and Azrael
could rectify in short order. That is, if Nona would
cooperate.

She was seated beside
Dags, just as she'd been during those months he'd been little more
than a vegetable. He wasn't as lifeless now as he tossed and turned
in a fevered sleep. Jason sensed something strange happening inside
of him, as had all of the Revenants. But no one could put their
finger on what. But all of them had worried it had something to do
with the bomb of a magic book within.

Nona frowned at him and
quietly pointed to Dags. Jason shook his head as Mephistopheles
finally spoke to her.

We need to
talk.

Nona stood, checked the
monitor read outs and made her way to the door. "This had better be
important Jason," she said in a low voice. "Dags' temperature is
stable, but I can't help thinking there's some connection between
that page with the hole in it and his condition. That page told me
it was Maureen."

"The page said that?"
Jason asked.

"Yes. Which makes me think
she's trying to communicate with us. But I don't know if the fever
is caused by the missing page, or by her."

Jason motioned her to
follow him into one of the empty rooms. His skin crawled as he
passed through one of Joe's wards and stood by the empty bed. Joe
and Azrael stood nearby and watched as Nona came in and
stopped.

"What's going
on?"

"I know where Morgan is,"
Joe said.

"Is that why you cast that
ward?"

"Yes. I don't want Rhonda
hearing this." He stepped toward her. "The stone dragon's not at
your place anymore, Nona. And when I reviewed the security tapes of
before they found Manuel on the floor, it's visible just through
the door of the storage room."

Her eyes widened. "It's
here?"

"Yeah. Remember when Tim
said she'd been to the house to get things? I'm willing to bet the
dragon was one of them. And I'm pretty sure it's in Rhonda's room.
Specifically in her closet. "

She narrowed her eyes at
him. "I'm not going to argue or question how you know that—you've
been surprising me a lot lately, Joseph. But I am questioning as to
why we're in here?"

"Because I need you to get
her out of her room."

"No."

"Nona—we have to help
Morgan as well as Dags."

"Joe I just
can't—"

"We can't get to that
dragon if she's sequestered
in
that room," Joe spoke up. "I'm pretty sure I can
subvert what wards she has as long as she's occupied with something
else."

"What's this
else
?" Nona looked to
each of them. Jason, Azrael and Joe.

"Dags," all three of them
said in unison. And that wasn't rehearsed.

"No," she turned to
leave.

"Nona," Joe reached out
and touched her shoulder. "Please, I know you're protective of him,
and he's one of your favorites but we don't mean to have her harm
him. We need her distracted and the best way to do that is to put
him in front of her. Let her see him. She can't actually do
anything with him."

Nona faced Joe and fixed
him with one of her stares, the kind Zoë had always complained
about. "Let me explain something to you, Joseph Halloran. Dags is
not my favorite. I don't pick favorites. If that were you in that
shape I'd be just as worried and attentive as I am with Dags. But
what does single him out is that god-damned book in his chest I
wished we'd never found." She stopped, apparently aware she'd
raised her voice.

Jason held out his hand.
"Kitten, please…" he hadn't realized he's used his old pet name for
her till after it was out of his mouth.
Well, no taking it back now.
"With
me and you and Umayma guarding Dags, with Tel watching our backs,
it makes it easier for Joe and Azrael to grab the dragon. We have
to release Morgan. Only she and Manuel can tell us what
happened—and by that we might get a better idea of what the hell's
up with Rhonda."

He thought she was going
to object to the name, or him using it publicly. But if Joe or
Azrael noticed they didn't react.

After a long silence her
shoulders visibly lowered. "I'll agree if only we someone on
standby ready to tranq Rhonda if she tries something. I don't want
Dags put into any more danger. He's not like he was—he's not awake
yet but he will be soon as we get that temperature down. I want
Manuel and Morgan reunited. She did narrow her eyes at Joe. "You
think you can get through her wards?"

"Hell yeah. Remember I
lived with her for a few months," he grinned. "She didn't use any
magic I couldn't break through."

•••

"I can't break this," Joe
muttered as he squatted down in front of Rhonda's closet. He could
see the ward as it shimmered around the opening. It created an
impenetrable egg shape, much like the Abysmal Throne. It'd taken an
hour to get things ready, remove the boggarts, escort Rhonda down
and then get into her room. He'd been at this for fifteen
minutes.

So much for the power of
confidence.

Azrael squatted down
beside him. "Should I just smash it?"

"Hulk no smash." Joe saw
the shapes and symbols she used, and he could hear the spell in his
head. It was like when he was little, when he could figure out his
mother's wards she's put up on the refrigerator to keep him from
eating everything. Or the one she kept on the cookie jar. He'd
easily found a way to break through that one and leave it in tact
so she wouldn't even know he'd been in it.

He was good at not leaving
any fingerprints.

But this… "She's used a
spell I'm not familiar with. I mean," and he pointed to the two
marks up to the right. "These are something I've seen
before."

"You think she got it out
of the
Grimoire
?"

"Possibly." Joe rubbed his
chin with his finger. "Well, I'd wanted to do this without her
knowing, but I don't think we have a choice."

"Meaning you're going to
make some noise."

"Yeah… I'm gonna make some
noise." He sighed as he rubbed his hands together. The friction
made them warm, which for him was his own foci into channel his
power. He raised them and held them palm out toward the closet
door. Living with Rhonda had given him a small insight into her way
of creating spells. She always used poetry—especially that of
Tennyson. The
Lady of Shalot
being her favorite. The words appeared in front
of him as he filed through the poem in his head. He scanned them,
wishing for the answer, until the words he needed became bold. He
spoke them aloud and—

The field vanished with an
audible pop.

"I didn't hear a
noise."

Joe stuck his pinky in his
ear and wiggled. "I did. Owe. I don't remember it ever doing that
before."

Azrael leaned forward as
he reached in and grabbed the dragon. It looked like a cheap
ceramic dragon with a brown stone faux finish that felt like real
stone.

Joe took it from Azrael.
"Now let's unlock this one." He concentrated on it and wished he
knew how to open it. What he got back was little more than
static.