Soul Cage (5 page)

•••

"…told you not to just blurt this
stuff out, Alice!" Maureen crossed her arms over her chest and
started pacing. She didn't go far though.

The two of them stood
outside the
Grimoire
in Dags' subconscious. The book and its ancient script lay
propped up against an invisible mountain on the shores of a beach
in front of a setting sun. But that sun had been setting for an
eternity, and Maureen was ready for it to either get back up or
disappear. This non-changing was just…intolerable.

The book itself looked as if the spine
had caught either in opening, or closing. The pages were available,
the spells exposed. The book had been doing this off and on ever
since the two Familiars discovered they were trapped inside of Dags
with no portals to step out of. The ones on his palms were gone. No
longer visible on either side. Somehow, the witch had trapped
them.

Maureen had waited patiently, watching
when the book opened. Light spilled out of it, golden and swirling
with tiny sparks like fireflies. Hell, as far as she knew it might
even be freak'n fairies whizzing around.

She made notes of how often it opened
and when. Times. Dates. All of it she etched in the sand of the
beach on a shore where the tide never moved. Near a campfire that
never went out.

And then finally…on a day she'd
calculated the book would open and it did, Maureen did what Alice
first said was the stupidest thing she'd ever done—aside from
killing Revenants. She waited until the pages stopped flipping and
then started turning them herself.

She'd called out to Alice to help her,
and eventually Alice showed up. Even Geist appeared to help them
move the pages faster, though his visit was quick. And when they
had the right page and felt the beach tremble, Maureen held up a
rock she'd sharpened and tore a hole in that page.

When the hole was made, the book went
dark.

But it didn't close. It
remained half open. Like it was now. And through that hole she and
Alice had learned they could hear the outside world around Dags as
well as make their voices heard
to
him, even if he didn't know who they were.
Through that hole they could manifest some of their
power.

Through that tear, they'd managed to
give him the sword to protect himself as well as Jason.

And now…now Jason was starting to
suspect and wanted answers.

"You got a better idea?" Alice said
from where she'd sat down on the sand by the book's back cover.
"Jason's not getting it."

"Then we need to find a
way we can speak
through
Dags and explain what we need them to do. Get
back upstairs into that little theater so we can be in control.
'Cause I'm certainly not going to wait till that twat-waffle steals
every single spell out of this book and then destroys
it."

"You really believe that's what Rhonda
will do?" Alice's disbelief was getting on her nerves. "She's
always been an admirable witch—"

"Admirable? This," and she
held out her hands. "Is admirable? Trapping us here? Tinkering with
Dags' memories? Hell he can't even remember me!" She pointed to her
chest. "And we had a
good
time together. He figured out how I died—and he
risked his life to know that. We were close. Now he's
just…clueless."

"No. It's like you said, he's been
tinkered with. And we have to help. Shhh. Now listen."

Maureen huffed. She didn't want to
listen. But that was why they were hovering by the tear. It was
visible on the lower right hand side of the page. It was blank
inside, but if they were quiet, they could hear.

"…like rumors around a water cooler,"
Dags was saying. "I mean, like I told you, I listened at first. But
I keep seeing all these scenes in my head. And I'm with Zoë. Why
would I be with her? Rhonda says she's never given me the time of
day. She's too busy to bother with me."

"I'm going to strangle that bitch,"
Maureen said.

"Sshh," Alice hissed and waved at her
before she leaned into the tear again.

"Zoë loves you, Dags. And she's had to
put up with what Rhonda's done."

"But if that were true—why is she
always with Daniel?" He sighed. "That guy gives me the
creeps."

"He's a Revenant."

"Yeah well so are you, but you don't
make me feel like a side of beef, drain the blood for a
snack."

Jason laughed. "Daniel's young. He'll
get used to it. But Dags you've got to—"

A ring tone sounded.

"Why is she calling so much?" Dags
asked.

The ringing stopped. "Nona—look you've
got to let me…uh….say what?" A long pause and Maureen cursed again
silently at the fact she couldn't hear Nona. "But this might be our
only chance."

"Sounds like she wants him back at the
House," Alice said as she relaxed back on the book's edge. "I can't
blame her. If Rhonda's watching him, he'd be safe. And no one would
dare take the book."

"Alice…" Maureen shoved
both of her hands into the sand. An idea popped up. But…would it
work? "You think we can go
through
that hole? Not now," because in truth she'd
already tried. But there seemed to be something stopping her.
Something invisible.

Alice leaned out and looked up at the
dark book. "If it were opened again, then I'd be willing to give it
a try."

"I think…if he goes back to her…the
first thing she's going to do is try to open this book." She
grinned. "Because you know she'll want to find out if anyone
tampered with it."

A sly smile pulled at Alice's lips. "I
think you're right. That's the first thing she's going to do. And
when she does—"

"We slip inside that tear. See what
happens."

"What if something bad
happens?"

Maureen shrugged. "You
wanna keep playing at our own version of
Lost
? I sure as hell don't. So let's
make sure he goes back."

•••

Jason was about to hang up on Nona
again when Dags abruptly stood up. "I think Nona's right. I think I
should go back."

"Dags—you sure you want to do
that?"

"Look," he held out his hands. "It's
Rhonda. I trust her. I mean, I love her. So if we stay on the House
grounds then everything should be okay. And then maybe I can talk
to her about not being so protective. There's no need to get the
whole Society in an uproar if I want to spend some time with a
friend." He winked. "Right? I wanted to buy my girl a little
present."

Jason stared at the kid.

Did he just
wink?

Yeah…he did. It was
creepy.

I don't like
this.

Neither do I. But I'm not
going to tie him up and lock him in a room either. We've learned a
lot. We need to look for Morgan. Anyone got hold of
Azrael?

I've been trying. But he's
been very busy.

Keep trying.

Mephistopheles didn't respond. Jason
stared at Dags as he spoke into the phone. "Yeah Nona? We'll be
home right after Dags and I do a little shopping." He closed the
phone. "Are you thinking that if we buy some things, then it might
soften her mood?"

"Well Mr. Lawrence, you read my mind.
There is this necklace she likes in Little Five Points. Let's head
there and then back to the House."

Jason nodded. He wasn't
sure, but the wink might have been a sign of something else.
Or
someone
else.

Dags' abrupt decision to go back to
the house —especially his idea to buy a gift—bore a level of
subterfuge Jason doubted the boy was capable of.

Something was going to happen if they
went back to the House, regardless of what Nona said. Something
Dags wanted to happen. And Jason intended to be there.

-5-

Rhonda
felt...uncomfortable.

Not only were they all
plotting against her—they were trying to take
him
away from her.

No, no, no. Not just him.
The book. The book is the most important thing.

Rhonda sat in her apartments at the
Society House, an entire lower part of a wing. It was directly
beneath the den where Jason tended to pace. She could hear him at
night. Back and forth. Back and forth. Squeak, squeak,
squeak...

Of all the Revenants infesting the
house, she hated him the most.

No...
she
didn't hate Jason.

It
hated Jason. It
feared
Mephistopheles.

As she sat on the ottoman
in front of her fireplace, Rhonda tried to define what
it
was. It had shown up
slowly. Just a nagging feeling now and then, a sort of
little-voice-in-the-back-of-her-mind
. But after Zoë was back and Dags started asking about
her—

That little voice got big. And at
times it seemed it was her only friend.

It'd made Manuel stop talking. His
eyes had widened, and then he'd collapsed on the floor. Nothing
woke him up. And the Society was upset.

"But...how did you do that?" she asked
aloud. She preferred to talk to it like that.

How did I do what? Silence
that Abysmic pain-in-the-ass? Oh, that was easy. I just…got rid of
the puppeteer.

"But...how? And why can't you do that
to Mephistopheles, especially after what he's done?" She meant
taking Dags from her, daring to remove him from the
House.

Because Mephistopheles is
a lot stronger than Morgan. Though Morgan is older, she wasn't
paying attention. She never saw me coming.

Rhonda frowned as the
voice laughed softly. "But what did you
do
?"

I simply removed Morgan.
It's not rocket science, you know. That damned Wraith would know
exactly what had happened given half a chance. Or if she slipped
inside of him. But luckily, she's out of the country. But if I
tried to do that with Jason, or anyone else now that they're on
alert
— the voice paused and she felt a
mental shrug —
it wouldn't work and I would
expose what I am.

"What
are
you?"

Now the laughter was
louder.
Why...I'm
you
, Rhonda. All...you.

"You removed Morgan—how did you do
it?"

Oh…that's my little
secret. Your friends need to pay more attention to the artifacts
they keep nearby.

"Who are you speaking
with?"

She jumped at the outward voice and
was on her feet. A magnificent presence in the room caused her to
look to the right.

Geist stood there in his Ordinary Man
look. Middle aged, non-specific, cheap suit. No one anyone would
notice on the street. "Damnit. Don't do that."

"I am sorry. But when I came in you
were talking to yourself." He canted his head to his right
shoulder. "I ask again—who were you speaking with?"

"No one," she turned and moved closer
to the fire. Talking to the voice like that always made her
chilled. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"I am here to inform you that Darren
has returned. He is—"

But Rhonda was already out the door
and running down the hall. She grabbed hold of the banister and
swung herself around, taking the steps down to the foyer two at a
time. She stopped at the bottom and looked around. She half
expected to see him there at the door.

But the room was empty.

You should have let that
old program finish.

"Sshh," she hissed and then stopped
and listened. Why couldn't she sense him the way he said he sensed
others—especially Zoë? She wished like hell he'd never told her he
could do that. Especially since she already knew how strongly Zoë
was connected to him. Even with all her plotting and planning—she
felt she would lose him when Zoë returned from Canada.

Then why should she
return?

Rhonda stopped. "What do you
mean?"

Why should she come back
from Canada? Why not do away with her there?

Do away with— "What the hell are you
talking about?"

But it laughed
again.
Leave it to me. I'm sure the Wraith
has a few unpleasant skeletons in her closet. I might see if I can
stir a few up.

The door of the sitting room opened
and she turned in time to see Azrael step out. "Ah, Rhonda. I see
you—"

But she ran at him, shoved him aside
and pushed the door open. It slammed into the shelf of books behind
it.

Dags was stood by the fire, a mug in
his hand. He was smiling. Laughing with Jason. Her focus shifted to
the Revenant. What had that bastard told him? What had he done to
him?