Soul Mates

by Donald Hanley

  “It hurts, Peter,” she whispered. “It’s worse than when I was sick.” She lifted a face to me that would have been tear-stained if ghosts could cry.

  “Why did you do that to her?” I raged at Mrs. Kendricks, my voice shaking. “You could have killed her!”

  “It was the only way,” she said quietly. “Demons don’t surrender their prey willingly.”

  “You could have warned us!”

  “Would you have let us do the ritual if you knew what would happen?”

  “I –” I hesitated. I couldn’t bear the thought of Olivia being hurt like that but I also knew we had to free her in order to save Daraxandriel. “You knew it was going to hurt her,” I accused her.

  “Yes,” she confessed somberly. “Roger Vandermeer told me the soul he tried to save begged him to stop. It wanted him to let the demon take it to Hell instead.”

  “What happened?”

  “He didn’t have the heart to continue. He tried to undo the ritual but the demon broke free, killed Roger’s assistant, and took both souls with it when it fled.”

  Olivia gasped in horror. “Oh my God,” she said shakily. “You shouldn’t have tried! It’s too dangerous!”

  Mrs. Kendricks made no response to that and I realized belatedly that she still couldn’t hear or see Olivia. “Why did you agree to do the ritual,” I asked her, “if you knew someone already died trying it?”

  “I knew what to expect and I had faith in Susie’s resolve,” she added dryly. Susie scowled at her, as if she wasn’t sure whether that was a compliment or not.

  “You owe me a new athame,” she groused. The blade of her knife was blackened and pitted and an acrid odor hung in the room.

  “I also hoped that Olivia’s bond with the Philosopher’s Stone would give her the strength to overcome the pain of severing the link.”

  “I don’t have the Stone!” I reminded her angrily.

  “The bond is still there regardless, Peter,” she told me. “How is she?”

  Olivia sat up gingerly. “I’ll be okay,” she said with a feeble smile. “It’s not as bad now.” I couldn’t tell whether she was actually telling the truth but at least her voice was steadier. She looked awfully pale, though, as if most of the color she’d gained had been leached out by her ordeal.

  “She says she’ll be fine,” I reported. “She’s really, um, ghostly again.” Olivia examined her hands with a doubtful frown.

  “She’s still bound to the Stone so she should recover over time. Unfortunately, that also means Ryan can still track her. Let’s finish up here and regroup.” Mrs. Kendricks raised both wands. “Everyone stand away from the circle, please.”

  Olivia scooted over to the wall as Susie and I moved back a couple of steps. Mrs. Kendricks took a slow breath and murmured, “Expergo.”

  Nothing happened for a long, gut-churning moment and then Daraxandriel’s eyes fluttered open. She looked around warily, obviously not recognizing her surroundings, as she squeezed her temples between her palms with a pained grimace. Then her gaze settled on Mrs. Kendricks’ wands and she sat up abruptly.

  “What hast thou done to me, Dame Kendricks?” she asked suspiciously. “Art thou the source of this piercing ache within me?” She looked down at herself and saw the glowing lines of the pentagram surrounding her. “Nay!” she gasped. “I shall not be bound again!”

  She launched herself straight at Mrs. Kendricks, but her outstretched hands got nowhere near her as the circle arced brighter than a welding torch, throwing her back and wreathing her in smoke. She shook her head groggily and then attacked again, like a wild animal trapped in a cage. Each time she tried to break through she was sent staggering but the circle seemed to be getting dimmer with every discharge. She was going to escape any minute and there was no telling what would happen next.

  “Dara!” I shouted, getting as close to the circle as I dared. “Dara, stop!” Daraxandriel either couldn’t hear me or wouldn’t listen. Susie had her wand out now but I grabbed her wrist before she could do anything with it. “Dara! It’s okay! Listen to me! Just stop and we’ll let you out!”

  She rounded on me, her fang bared and her eyes blazing like a furnace, and I flinched back. “Peter Simon Collins!” she snarled. “Art thou aligned with my captors?”

  “No! The circle’s just there to protect everyone while we freed Olivia. See?” I gestured to Olivia, forgetting that Daraxandriel couldn’t actually see her. “It’s over. We’ll let you out now, okay?” I nodded vigorously to emphasize the point and she slowly lowered her hands.

  “Thou hast not betrayed me?” she asked uncertainly.

  “No, of course not! I love you!” Susie made a rude noise as she rolled her eyes and Olivia looked at me like I’d grown a second head as she rose to her feet on unsteady legs. “Just give us a second to open the circle. Don’t attack anyone, okay?” Daraxandriel scanned our faces and then nodded slowly. “Mrs. Kendricks?”

  “Roger warned me this might happen as well,” she noted but she gestured and the lines of the pentagram faded away. Daraxandriel warily tested the floor with a toe and then hurried over to my side. “You can go now, Dara,” Mrs. Kendricks said. She looked exhausted. “We’ll deal with Ryan and Lilith.”

  “Go?” Daraxandriel looked puzzled.

  “Olivia’s not holding you on this plane anymore. You can walk the shadowed paths. They can’t follow you there.”

  “But what of Lilith?” she asked uneasily. “She still seeks us.”

  “We’ll deal with –”

  We all jumped when the door knob suddenly rattled. Whoever was on the other side tried a couple of times to get the door to open before it fell silent again. “Fuss and bother,” muttered a querulous voice. “Who keeps locking this door?”

  “It’s Mrs. Phipps,” Mrs. Kendricks said with a relieved sigh. “Stay put, I’ll get rid of her.”

  She quickly did her hair up and pinned it in place with her wands. She shook out her skirt, straightened her blouse, and then unlocked the door, opening it just a few inches. “Mrs. Phipps,” she greeted her casually.

  “Mrs. Kendricks!” the older woman exclaimed. “What are you doing in the supply room? I could have gotten anything you needed.”

  “Thanks for the offer but I don’t mind fetching my own pencils. Did you need something in here?” She glanced over her shoulder with a doubtful look. There was absolutely no place for us to hide in the room. As soon as the door opened wider, Mrs. Phipps was going to see us and wonder what in the world we were doing.

  “Oh, no,” Mrs. Phipps assured her. “I was just looking for cats.”

  “Cats?”

  “I was straightening up in Mr. Jensen’s office and I could have sworn I heard someone screaming, which is ridiculous, of course. I thought perhaps it was another one of those miserable cats yowling so I’ve been checking all the rooms on this floor. There isn’t a cat in there, is there?” She tried to peek through the opening but Mrs. Kendricks held her ground.

  “We got rid of all the cats, Mrs. Phipps,” she said firmly. “Perhaps you just imagined it.”

  “I may be old, Mrs. Kendricks,” she retorted stiffly, “but I’m not crazy. I heard what I heard.”

  “Of course you did. Well, carry on. Let me know if you find anything.”

  Mrs. Phipps complied with a sour grumbling and Mrs. Kendricks watched her continue down the hallway. She finally let out her breath and turned back to us.

  “I’d forgotten she can hear ghosts,” she said ruefully. “We’re lucky she didn’t call the police.”

  “Olivia’s invisible,” I pointed out. “They wouldn’t have found anything.”

  “Except for a few suspicious-looking individuals hiding in the supply room for no good reason,” she countered, nodding to Daraxandriel with her horns and tail and Susie with her wand and ruined athame. “Let’s get you out of here.”

  She checked the hallway and then waved the rest of us out. We retraced our path back to the side exit in singl
e file, with Mrs. Kendricks in front and me in the rear, looking over my shoulder to make sure Mrs. Phipps didn’t reappear behind us.

  “So now what?” I asked worriedly. “How do we convince Agent Prescott that Dara’s harmless now?”

  “She’s not harmless,” Mrs. Kendricks argued. “Ryan’s been fighting demons his entire life. He’s not going to believe that she suddenly renounced all her demonic powers.”

  “So we did all this for nothing?” I asked in dismay.

  “We accomplished what we set out to do,” she reminded me. “Olivia and Dara are no longer bound together. Now we just need to get the Philosopher’s Stone back.”

  “How are we going to do that?”

  Mrs. Kendricks pondered that question until she stopped by the exit. “You three go back home and stay out of sight. Ryan doesn’t know you’re involved in all this so it’s best to keep it that way. Where’s Olivia?”

  Olivia and I exchanged a worried look. “She’s right beside me,” I told her, pointing. “Why?”

  “Ryan’s tracking her with the Stone. If Olivia stays with me, it’ll lead him right to me and I’ll be able to explain what’s been happening. We should be able to resolve this without any unnecessary fireworks.”

  Olivia shook her head. “That won’t work, Peter,” she said. “If you leave, I’ll be pulled after you.”

  “I’m not wearing the Stone, remember?” I told her. “You’ll be pulled to Lilith and she’s with Prescott. Except ...” My voice trailed off. “Why aren’t you with her now? Why are you still here?”

  “I got dragged along with her earlier,” Olivia groused, “right in the middle of my movie. Your mother drove her to some sort of animal place and then Lilith left with the same guy who talked to me just before I died. Wasn’t he supposed to be chasing her or something?” she asked doubtfully.

  “It’s a long story. Did they go to the house?”

  Olivia shrugged. “I don’t know. I just appeared here with you before they got very far. I guess Dara woke up and then fell asleep again.”

  “What’s wrong, Peter?” Mrs. Kendricks asked.

  “Olivia’s bond with the Stone won’t let her get very far away. If she’s still here with us, Lilith must be really close. Where’s the Stone now?” I asked Olivia urgently. “Can you feel it?”

  Olivia blinked at me and then looked around worriedly. She turned in a complete circle and then tilted her head back. “There,” she said, pointing up at an angle. “It’s up there.”

  “They’re upstairs!” I gulped.

  “Quick! Everyone outside!” Mrs. Kendricks shoved the door open. “I’ll head them off.”

  I pushed Dara through the opening but she immediately recoiled. “A cat stands watch!” she gasped.

  I looked past her and saw a black cat sitting just outside, glowering at us with its tail wrapped around its legs. It looked like all the other cats we’d seen hanging around the library, except this one wore a collar with a tag.

  “That’s Prescott’s familiar!” The cat hissed at me as if it was mad at me for blowing its cover and then it scurried off towards the parking lot. “Stop it! It’s going to tell him where we are!”

  Mrs. Kendricks snatched her wands from her hair but Susie was faster. “Fuge!” she yelled, brandishing her wand. The cat leapt a good foot into the air and then it sped away like a black lightning bolt. “It didn’t explode,” she grumbled.

  “That’s a real cat, you nitwit! Come on!” I grabbed Daraxandriel’s hand to haul her to the Mustang but only took two steps before I turned back. “Olivia! Go upstairs and lead them away from us. Make them think we’re hiding in the stacks or something.” Olivia nodded jerkily and ran back into the library.

  “Go!” Mrs. Kendricks urged us. “I’ll call you when it’s safe.”

  “There’s another one! Fuge!” Something popped behind me and I spun around. Susie’s wand pointed at a smudge of black smoke settling to the ground a few feet away. “Ha! That one worked.”

  “Another imp?” Mrs. Kendricks murmured uneasily. “Where are they coming from?”

  “There, upon thy carriage!” Daraxandriel pointed a shaky finger at the Mustang. Two cats sat on the hood and another peeked out from underneath.

  “There’s more on the wall,” Susie added. Three cats sat there and two more ran along the top to join them, all of them identical. “Fuge!” One of them poofed into smoke but two new cats arrived to take its place and several more perched on top of the dumpster.

  “That’s not helping, Susie,” I said nervously. I used my key fob to beep the Mustang’s horn but this time the cats stayed put, staring at us with baleful eyes. No, they were staring at Daraxandriel. “Can we use your car?” I asked Mrs. Kendricks hopefully.

  She shook her head. “My keys are in my office.”

  “Any suggestions?” The cats blocked the far end of the alley. They seemed content to just watch us for now but that could well change if we got too close.

  “Explode them?” Susie asked hopefully, brandishing her wand.

  “We don’t have time, there’s too many,” Mrs. Kendricks told her tersely. “Go around front, hurry!”

  “What if Prescott’s there?” I protested.

  “Find someplace with a lot of people. He can’t do anything drastic if there are witnesses. I’ll try to talk some sense into him.”

  I wasn’t so sure about that but I didn’t have any better ideas. I grabbed Daraxandriel’s hand and ran towards the parking lot and Milton Street beyond but we stumbled to a halt as two figures appeared ahead of us.

  “Stop right there, demon!” The tip of Ryan Prescott’s ebony wand glowed blue-white as he aimed it at Daraxandriel. I jumped in front of her and spread my arms and he jerked his hand back in surprise. “Peter? What are you doing here?”

  “She twisted his mind,” Lilith told him, striding up beside him. “He thinks he’s in love with her.” My silver chain hung around her neck and the Philosopher’s Stone gleamed feebly through the fabric of her plain white dress. “Destroy her and he’ll be freed.”

  “No! Lilith’s lying!” I shouted. “She wants Dara dead!”

  “Of course I do,” she agreed smoothly. “Look at her, those horns, that tail. A monster like that threatens everyone. Kill her, Ryan.”

  “Don’t listen to her.” Mrs. Kendricks came up beside me and Susie stood on my other side, both of them holding their wands at the ready. “Dara’s no danger to anyone.”

  “Arial, what are you doing?” Prescott demanded, his voice anguished. “Why are you protecting that thing?”

  “Isn’t it obvious?” Lilith smirked. “She overcame your true love’s wards and turned her against you. Are you going to leave her at the mercy of a demon or are you going to take her back?”

  “Peter!” Olivia’s voice came from somewhere behind me but I didn’t dare turn away to look. “It didn’t work, I’m sorry! One of those cats showed up and they just – Oh my God! They’re here?”

  Prescott’s hand shot out and a crackling bolt lanced straight at Daraxandriel. I didn’t have time to do anything other than blink before the bolt shattered against a silvery bubble that formed around us, scattering sparks everywhere. “Arial, stop!” he shouted. “I don’t want to fight you!”

  “Then don’t,” she said tightly. “Dara hasn’t broken my wards. I’m helping her because it’s the right thing to do.”

  “Well, of course she’d say that,” Lilith retorted. “The demon knows you’re stronger than she is, Ryan. She’s trying to trick you into lowering your guard.”

  “Don’t listen to her!” Mrs. Kendricks gritted angrily. “She’s twisting the facts. Give me a chance to explain.”

  “The longer you wait, the harder it’ll be to stop her,” Lilith warned. “It’s now or never, Ryan. Knock them all out and kill the demon where she lies.”

  “I’m sorry, Arial,” Prescott said quietly.

  “Don’t do it, Ryan,” Mrs. Kendricks warned him. “Lilith’s the r
eal enemy, not Dara.”

  Lilith laughed. “She’s getting desperate. Just get this over with so we can all go home.”

  Prescott’s lips tightened into a grim line as he raised his wand again and then he looked up as the alley was suddenly plunged into darkness. A black cloud roiled directly overhead, bubbling like boiling tar. It spread out quickly. blotting out the sky. and a clammy wind swept around us, carrying with it a warm, oily rain. All of the cats stared up at the cloud unblinkingly as it began to spin counter-clockwise.

  “What is that?” I asked nervously. It looked and felt wrong.

  “I haven’t the faintest idea,” Mrs. Kendricks breathed.

  The center of the cloud dipped lower, forming a twisting, writhing funnel that reached down to the ground and scoured the pavement clear of debris. The wind picked up, rattling the windows and whipping our hair and clothing. One of the cats ran straight towards the whirlwind and disappeared within and then another followed it. One after another, all of them jumped into the spinning column of mist and vanished, until we were alone in the alley.

  “The imps return to their master!” Daraxandriel whispered hoarsely, her nails digging painfully into my arm. “We needs must flee, Peter Simon Collins!”

  That sounded like a really good idea. The town’s tornado sirens started wailing in the distance as I backed away from the phenomenon, pulling Daraxandriel and Susie with me. Olivia stood frozen in place by the side door, closer to the cloud than any of us, gripping the front of her nightgown fearfully.

  “Olivia!” I called. “Get out of here!” I had no idea if the cloud could hurt her but I wasn’t willing to take the chance.

  Before she could move, a ruddy glow flared within the column, as if someone had lit a fire somewhere deep inside. The light dimmed suddenly as a shadow passed in front of it, a very large and not-entirely-human shadow, and then a demon stepped forward out of the mist.

  He stood at least eight feet tall, all rough-hewn angles like an unfinished sculpture and naked except for a ragged loincloth. His horns were cracked and twisted and a crude black patch covered one eye but the other one gleamed bright orange as the demon took in his surroundings. He didn’t seem to have a tail but a pair of massive bat wings rose above his broad shoulders like badly folded umbrellas. One scarred hand gripped a battered warhammer and an ugly amulet hung about his thick neck on an iron chain. The unnatural rain hissed into vapor wherever it touched his dark red skin. Behind him, the column faded away into the shadows but the cloud continued to churn overhead.