“It’s not the same.” Lex had reached out and grabbed my shoulders. “This is a First Born, the most regal of all the Original’s creations—you must free him!” And she shook me. Hard.
Look, I’m usually a very patient person. Well, maybe not very patient. But I can put up with a lot. And sometimes I’m a little clueless. Okay. A lot clueless. But I’d had a lot happen to me over the past months. Not only physical changes but mental as well. And my heart—
My heart wasn’t something I understood anymore.
And, well . . . I’d been pushed around enough. By TC, by Rodriguez, by the Horror (which was really me, and if I thought about it, could totally screw up my thinking), and now by some Revenant I had no loyalty to.
I put my hands on her forearms as she shook me.
“Lex, stop!” Jason was beside us, pulling at Lex.
Joe was also there, trying to pull her off me.
But Lex was lost in her own misery, her own despair at the loss of her lover, and at a possible threat to her very existence, and on one level I understood this. That didn’t mean l liked being shaken. I pushed at her arms as I yelled at her. “Stop it!”
“You will free him! You must free him! You’re nothing but a mutated bastard that should never have been born!”
Okay. I was pissed.
And, unfortunately, like most of us with Latina blood, I had a short fuse at times. So screw what I just said on being patient. I was fucking PISSED OFF. Calling me a bastard was a direct insult to my mom, and my dad, who just happened to be Ethereal.
I pushed away from her, but she pushed back, and before I knew it she was lifting me and slamming me against the back wall.
Jason shouted.
Tim gasped.
Joe tried to stop her but was flung backward by some invisible hand and crashed into the wall beside the room’s door.
I felt a growl start deep in my throat as I shifted—not just physically but mentally as well. My strength increased, and I wound my arms around, twisting out of hers, and pushed her so hard she flew back into the table where the body rested. Her expression and face became feral, and I recognized the emergence of her First Born, the seed of her power, showing itself for the first time.
And to be honest, I thought Lex was a whole lot scarier.
She hissed at me, and I could actually see blurs in the air as she threw something resembling shirukens at me. I put up my arms and felt stinging along my forearms. Checking, I saw that my skin had split just as my mother’s had when Jason fed from her. Is this a Revenant’s power? If so, I really need to figure out how to create a mind shield or something.
“You will free him!” she shouted at me, her voice and that of the First Born’s echoing in my head.
I held out my arms as blood dripped on the floor and saw my talons grow. Oh, I was ready to slice and dice this bitch’s flesh to ribbons. But before I could get a running start to launch at her, something coalesced in front of me, blocking my view.
Trench Coat!
He was there in all his sexy glory, his coat flared out behind him, his shades in place and his hands to his sides, palms facing Lex. “That’s enough, Yamato!”
Everything just stopped at that moment. Tim appeared to be as startled as me as he yelped and vanished.
I peered out from behind TC and watched as Lex’s expression switched from lividly angry to seriously confused. She was standing up by then, wiping the blood from her nose. Her nose? Did I hit her? I didn’t think so. Joe and Rhonda stood just beyond her, their eyes as wide as goose eggs. Tim wasn’t even corporeal anymore. And Jason—
He was beside Lex, pointing at TC. “Just stop, Archer—this has to stop. Bickering among ourselves isn’t the way to solve this.”
But Lex’s arm was raised again, and she was pointing at us. “You will make her do it! She has to release him! Aether cannot end like this!”
... Please . . . help us . . . So much . . . pain . . .
I put my Wraithy hands up to my temples and twisted them to see the slashes on my forearms. The blood was starting to flow, and I couldn’t figure out how to make it stop. When I was OOB, the injuries echoed back to my body, but they were basically echoes. Yeah, they were physical, but I always managed to heal. But being in physical form—
Abruptly, TC turned and grabbed my arms, and was facing me. His hands squeezed the cuts, and I yelled out because that hurt. I could see his expression go from anger to irritation behind the glasses. “Luv—don’t ever go head to head with a Revenant. They ain’t got nothing special ’cept this skin-lashing thing. If you want to crush ’em”—he grinned then and pulled his hands away from my no-longer-wounded forearms—“you gotta do—”
He spun around and pushed out his left arm. “This!” The red light shot out of his hand as it had that first night we’d met, when he’d tried to take me. It blanketed Lex with an eerie glow, and she snarled and growled but didn’t attack back.
“Archer!” Jason said, sounding like a dad scolding a son. “Stop it.”
TC looked over at Jason. “Nice to see you, Meph. Nice bod—though not as nice as that last one. Sorry we didn’t hook up in Manhattan. She get popped?”
“Might not have happened if you’d’ve kept the date. But we’re not here to talk about Lacey,” Jason said. “Let Lex go. You have to realize what’s happening here.”
Rhonda stepped up and pointed at TC and then at Jason. “Am I right in thinking—you two were—”
“That was a long time ago,” Jason said.
TC snarled. “It was just one night, and my ride was horny as hell.”
I blanched as I realized where Rhonda’s mind had gone—OMG. Because, evidently, TC and Mephistopheles-in-Lacey had once—“You two—had sex?”
TC looked at me and held out his non-red-glowing hand. “She meant nothing to me.”
“Yeah.” Jason crossed his arms over his chest. “I tried to warn Lacey you were nothing but a player.”
Oh . . . gross. I glared at Jason. He’d had my mom . . . and he’d had . . . the Archer? “Whore dog.”
But Jason only smiled at me, looking for all the world like the Cheshire cat. “Ever heard of the pot and the kettle, Miss Martinique?” He raised his eyebrows.
Not understanding, I looked at TC. He shrugged and pointed to himself and then me with his free hand. “Remember that we—you and me—”
Oh.
Jason laughed. “I can see you left a memorable impression on the Wraith with your sexual prowess, Archer.”
Sexual—
OH!
That first long night out of my body, when I woke up dead in the morgue.
God . . . when did my sex life become so damned complicated?
14
NOW, bad relationships could affect a situation. Bruised feelings, toppled egos. All that shit. So if these two had a history, then I figured this situation could go good, or it could go bad.
I was thinking that, with my luck, the bad would win.
Luckily TC lowered his hand, releasing Lex. Lex started to go after him, but Jason quickly reached out and grabbed her arm. “No!”
... No time . . . left . . .
Gah . . . there were two voices in my head. The darker, more powerful one had to be Aether’s voice, and the smaller, more frightened one was that of the man on the table. Deep down I knew I had no choice but to help them. But I didn’t want to. I was too scared to. Och . . . damn me and my mortal conscience.
“She’s not going to do this,” TC said in his deep voice. “It’s not her fault or mine that Aether got himself into this situation. He was also stupid and cocky.”
“Cocky?” Lex said. “You’re the cocky one. The betrayer. We all know it was you that showed that bastard where we were, showed him how to find us so we had to hide in these forms.” She tapped on her chest. “We had to become something base, something else. You betrayed us all!”
“I did not betray anyone!” TC boomed, and stepped forward. I swear it looked as if hi
s coattails were alive and fanned out to either side. “I wasn’t myself. You think I enjoyed those centuries under his power? Under his control?”
Lex spit in front of him. “Bullshit, Archer. You weren’t under anyone’s control. No one believes you!”
“That’s the truth!” TC moved in closer.
Okay, I’d already been through fourth grade, and I got past this whole “yes you did” and “no I did not,” and didn’t particularly want to repeat it. I moved from behind TC and neared the body, ignoring the WTF looks I was getting from Rhonda. Like I knew what the children were fussing about? Instead, I moved in close to the body and stared at the symbols.
In this form I could see things I normally couldn’t see when just plain old human. When I looked at Mialani on Wednesday, the cuts all over her body looked like regular cuts (I wasn’t going to say normal cuts because there was nothing normal about having things carved all over one’s body), like someone had used a razor blade or a very sharp knife and carved them in.
But when I looked at Aether’s body—the human host’s body—each of the cuts sparkled as if sprinkled with white glitter. The closer I got, the more every line twinkled at me. And as I looked at the body, a soft, purplish glow seemed to infuse it. I only half paid attention to the Revenant and the First Born arguing at the foot of the gurney. It was a small room.
Joe came to stand on the opposite side of the gurney. I looked at him. He was glaring at me. Though not with the same angry intensity that Rhonda was as she took up a position behind him.
Can you ask him?
I realized at that moment that I’d already made up my mind to do just that. If there was any way to find out who was doing this, then I really didn’t have a choice, did I?
Crap.
I raised my right hand and pressed on the man’s chest, and gasped when it went through the flesh. I immediately cringed, expecting to feel the cold fire I’d touched before when I’d touched Mialani’s body. I was pleasantly surprised when that didn’t happen. Instead, I felt—
Nothing.
Well . . . it was kinda like putting my hand in a vat of cotton candy. If there was something there, it was just that hard to catch.
“Zoë?”
And abruptly I wasn’t in the morgue anymore but in darkness. And I mean dark. I couldn’t see anything, not even a hand in front of my face, which, of course, I was waving. I could still hear Joe, and Rhonda, and was that TC yelling? But it was like a bad long-distance connection. Suddenly, I realized I wasn’t alone.
How?
Because something was humping my leg.
I looked down, and of course I couldn’t see anything, but I could reach down and feel it. It was furry—
Ouch!
And it had teeth!
I growled at it and used my left hand to grab it. Within seconds there was a gold flare, and the thing was gone. But the golden light had illuminated someone standing in front of me.
With a shrug, I held up my left hand again. The mark of TC’s handprint glowed and illuminated a circle around me. They were still there. A tall man I recognized as the man on the table, then an even taller, more physically buff guy beside him. I supposed this was the actual First Born. What disturbed me most what that they looked like corpses.
All pale and stiff.
I waved. “Allo?”
The smaller dude stepped forward. “Are you real?”
Trick question? The apparition asking if I was real? “Yes. You—” Wait. I had no idea what the name of the host was. “I’m Zoë.”
“You’re the Wraith,” the taller one said, and his voice held a bit of an echo in the darkness. “I am Aether.”
“Hi, Aether. Yes, I’m a Wraith. And I’m here to help if I can—but before I do, I need to find out who did this to you?”
The smaller man nearly disappeared, and the expression on his face frightened even me. And I didn’t scare easy by then. Well . . . that might not be all true. “No . . .” he said.
Aether reached out and took the younger man in his arms, like a father would comfort a son. “Easy. It’s okay.” He looked at me, and his face was still half-hidden in shadows. “We don’t know.”
I pursed my lips and felt my wings unfurl. Ooh . . . sometimes they had a mind of their own. “Wait . . . you’re a Revenant. Sharper hearing, seeing, senses period, right? Like a vampire. And someone snuck up on you, killed you, drained your blood, and carved symbols into your flesh, and you never knew who?”
Aether shook his head. “Whoever it was drugged my host and I was blinded. Before we could regain any sensation, the blood was drained, and my host’s body died, though my presence kept his soul here with me. But without his eyes, as you can see”—he looked around—“we are in darkness. I can only tell you that it wasn’t anything I’d ever encountered before.”
“Meaning it wasn’t from the Abysmal plane?”
“Nothing that I had ever known, but then I have encountered several of his beastly creations before.” Aether turned his head in the shadow as if to look away. “He himself is an abomination.”
Well, this was a dead end. Literally. Whoever or whatever was attacking was making sure it wasn’t identifiable. But still . . . to sneak up on a Revenant? I somehow got the idea that wasn’t as easy as it sounds. At least not with someone as old as Aether. And I could sense that age while I stood in front of him. “Are we inside the body?”
Aether nodded. “You can release us. I can sense that.” He paused. “But there is a price.”
Hooo boy. “I released Mialani’s soul Wednesday—and just woke up today. I’m not sure how well I’ll be able to release the two of you.”
“It’s not that kind of price.” Aether moved closer, and I took an involuntary step back. He scared the crap out of me there in the weird funky golden darkness that I was illuminating.
“I have an idea of what kind of price,” I said, and held up my other hand. I felt and heard my wings rustle. “Damnation and all that.”
“No,” Aether said, and stopped coming closer. “That’s not what I mean. The price is not for you to pay, but for me.” There was a pause, and I felt somehow that he was coming to a decision. “What I can tell you about who did this is what I sensed, but not what I know. The presence was not familiar, but it did have the taste of something Abysmal, as well as Ethereal.”
Well, I hadn’t expected to hear that. “Both? Something in between?”
He nodded. “And it was terrifying. It wasn’t anything in physical form, but something that entered my host’s dreams. It paralyzed us, wrapped itself around us until this darkness came, and we were trapped. I knew then there was no escaping this body, and so we have been here ever since.”
Was part of both planes, was Abysmal and was Ethereal. That much confused me. But what bothered me was the description of how it wrapped itself around them. Reminded me of the image of that thing me and TC had encountered that Wednesday morning. “Uhm . . . did it look like hair?”
Aether tilted his head to the side. “I’m sorry?”
Wow, Revenants were polite. Wonder where TC went wrong.
“Did it look like a huge wig of long hair when it wrapped itself around you?”
“I don’t know,” Aether said. “I couldn’t see it. Neither could my host. But I could sense magic. Strong magic. Even now, it’s eating its way through the flesh to us.”
Hrm . . .
I thought of something he said. “What do you mean the price is for you to pay?”
He came toward me again and stopped. I held my ground this time. “It means I must lose this world.” And his voice was sad inside my head. So very heavy with regret. “I won’t be able to return to it. My essence will become part of the darkness of the Abysmal, and I will no longer taste the fruits of this world, know the desires of the human heart, or be able to feel a lover’s caress on my lips. But—I will remember it.”
I felt my breath catch in my throat as I understood what he meant. For him, this was the
end of the ride. “And your host?”
“He will ascend as he was meant to do.” Aether turned and held the smaller man close to him. “As they were all meant to do.” He pulled back from him and touched the smaller one’s chin. I could feel the fear vanish. “But I will remember him. I will remember all of them.”
Oh, this was intolerably sappy. I held up my hands and waved. “Wait, wait, wait. Are you telling me that you’ll return to Abysmal goo, and he’ll move on?”
“Yes.”
“You can’t just pop out and continue as you were before?”
“No. Not as the spell is written now.” He looked at me, and I could almost make out sad golden eyes. “I don’t count this as a curse, Wraith. I count this as a blessing. If this spell were correct, I would no longer exist, and neither would my host. Please”—he sighed—“release us both.”
Oh boy.
And here’s where it got sticky for me. I wanted to, and I was scared to. And could anyone blame me?
But no matter how scared I was, I knew there was no way I was going to run away from it. I couldn’t. And so I’d lose a few more days. Bah. I needed the sleep.
With my left hand still out, the pattern of TC’s hand grew brighter, intensified the golden light. Aether pulled his host closer and pointed to my hand. “Touch her—and the pain will vanish.”
Hesitantly, he came to the light, and he was an exact replica of the man carved on the table. He looked at me with sadness and took my hand. There was a sharp intense pain in my gut that grew, a stabbing agony—
Which dissipated the second Aether touched my hand as well. In fact, the pain disappeared altogether just as the soul vanished, and there was nothing there but Aether and me, holding hands.
“You would have been a great Irin, Zoë Martinique,” he said in a soft voice. “I would have loved to—” And then his eyes widened as if a great secret was revealed to him. “Oh no . . . that can’t be. You can’t let him do that! You must get away from—”
Revenant Page 11