INVISIBLE DUTY (INVISIBLE RECRUITS)

by Buckham, Mary

  Kelly brushed against my shoulder and I jumped.

  Okay, maybe I wasn’t hiding my worries as well as I’d hoped.

  “You said body didn’t you?” Jaylene spoke on the other side of me, her voice strained.

  I nodded.

  “As in leaving it?”

  Another nod. If I didn’t do this soon I’d turn tail and run.

  I glanced at Kelly. “I need you to do something for me.”

  “What?”

  I looked around but didn’t see anything I could use, so I just threw out what I wanted. “You must pound on something. Wood to metal, hands to hands, something.”

  She cocked her head. “Why? What am I doing?”

  “Mimicking a heartbeat. That will keep me tethered to this realm while I’m in the other. As long as I can hear you, I can follow the sound back to my body.”

  Kelly nodded and started a slow rhythmic clapping of her hands. It wasn’t ideal because it was so quiet compared with beating on a hide drum. But needs must.

  “That’s good,” I encouraged, settling myself into as comfortable position as I could get. “Keep it up.”

  Jaylene glanced at Kelly as if making sure they were both hearing this conversation before asking, “And what happens if you don’t return to your body? Or if Kelly stops drumming?”

  It was Mandy who answered. “She dies.”

  CHAPTER TEN

  Mandy as a spirit or soul walker knew what she was talking about. They were among the few who could travel between the spirit and the physical world. Problem was spirits with enough smarts, or chutzpah, could swap places with the spirit walker once she crossed to the other side. So the risk of a journey to the spirit side was far greater for her than for me.

  Spirits of those departed couldn’t slip into my body while I was away. But if I didn’t come back within a short period of time I’d remain a spirit; or more specifically neither spirit nor shaman but a lost soul. Not a pleasant thought.

  “Don’t djinn have powers to converse with the spirit world?” Mandy asked, surprising me. Who knew she had any insights into their behavior?

  “I listened in Fraulein Fassbinder’s classes,” she said, answering my thoughts before I could voice them.

  “Yes, djinn and spirits can communicate, but from what I know the ability is limited.”

  “Limited, but it exists,” she said, keeping her dark-eyed gaze on mine.

  “Which means what?” Jaylene butted in.

  “Which means djinn can manipulate the dead spirits. So you’re no safer as a spirit than you are in your physical body.”

  “Then the plan stinks,” Jaylene pointed out. As if I didn’t already know that.

  “Yeah, it has a few potential speed bumps, but nothing I’m not willing to risk.”

  If I didn’t stop this djinn he’d keep killing and destroying. That was a given. And if I didn’t contain him, as small a chance as that was, who knew who could. I wasn’t thinking about Mandy’s bet but of Gahutu, who deserved a life. One he’d never experience.

  Mandy didn’t say anything. Probably because I was staring her down and there wasn’t a lot left to be said. We were running out of time. Looking for another Tuareg was too much of a long shot. My gut and my ring both said our best chance was to follow where the tall blue man had just disappeared. Danger or no danger.

  I adjusted in the spot where I was sitting until I was as comfortable as I could get, then spoke to both Kelly and Jaylene who were standing in front of me. “If I’m gone longer than thirty minutes, get out of here.”

  “But—” Kelly started to speak.

  “That’s an order, and as long as Vaughn is gone, this is my op.” I narrowed my gaze on Mandy. “Make sure that happens.”

  She nodded but didn’t say anything. Not that fond farewells were either of our styles. I knew it wasn’t likely I could find the djinn much less stop him. Which meant the chance of my getting to Paris was low.

  “Mandy,” I said as she turned her back on me.

  “Yeah?”

  “If I don’t . . .you know what I mean.”

  “Yeah?” her voice had softened. I figured she wanted me gone, but not this way.

  Too bad. That was the problem with choices. Once made, you had to ride them out.

  “If I don’t get to Paris, find my brother for me.”

  She gave one steady nod. But I wasn’t finished.

  “And...”

  “You have a shopping list?” Jaylene asked.

  I didn’t think I had a smile left in me. But she’d pulled one out. “If something happens, you’ll tell Bran.”

  Bran was the sexy and way-out-of-my-league warlock I’d crossed paths with on my last mission. One that didn’t end too well for his cousin; or for our relationship, brief as it was.

  “I’ll tell the hunk what?” Jaylene was using conversation to put off the inevitable. “That you screwed up and should have told him you cared? That you still have the hots for him?”

  “Good grief, don’t do that,” I sputtered, caught off guard.

  Jaylene leaned toward me. “Then get your scrawny ass back here or I’ll tell him how you sobbed and moaned over losing him.”

  “Try it and I’ll haunt you the rest of your days.”

  Still I gave her a thumb up as she, Kelly and Mandy formed a protective circle around me, their backs toward me, Kelly still clapping.

  The first part of my plan was simple. Slowing my breathing allowed me to still the nerves thrumming through me.

  Deep breaths. In. Out. Relax. Focus. Center.

  I said a silent prayer to the spirit guardian of my shamanic ancestors that the next breath I took wouldn’t be my last, and murmured the first ritual words.

  Come death, advise me.

  I remembered doing this on my last mission as the cold washed against my skin. Gone was the African heat, the scents of dung and dirt disappearing, the cries of hawkers selling their wares, all becoming a background blur. I closed my eyes and continued.

  Earth be found.

  Power be bound.

  Stall Nature’s course.

  Earth, dust, bone.

  Bind to me.

  Spirits Realm welcome me.

  Spirits Realm call me forth.

  When I opened my eyes I was there. The Spirits’ waiting grounds. The realm between worlds, where the souls of the dead mingled. If only for a brief time.

  I braced myself for the sight that had greeted me before. The darkness, filled with thousands of churning souls. But instead what encircled me was intense heat with a sun so brilliant I raised one hand to shield my eyes.

  Where was I?

  Blinking against the glare I waited to identify the blurs dancing before me. Were those buildings? Small, squat and square, they looked like mud-backed hovels, with walls crumbling and gritty khaki-colored sand wafting around them. But why were they here?

  “They’re part of my memories,” a male voice slapped against me. Sounding familiar but different, raspy and raw.

  I looked around but could see nothing except the buildings and whirls of dust.

  “Who are you?” Where was he? That worried me more as I scrambled to my feet feeling woozy from the extreme heat. Who would have thought I’d miss the bone-chilling cold this place normally held?

  “You don’t recognize me?” he chuckled, which scared me enough to remember where I’d heard that voice before.

  I’d found the djinn.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Great. What now?

  “You expected to find me so easily on your own? Did you forget puny witch, that hell is filled with both humans and djinn? My free will called you here as your free will allowed you to accept my challenge. Now you’re in my world.” He sounded smugly superior. So some things hadn’t changed.

  I crouched and swept around, trying to pinpoint where he was. “I should care about a history lesson on djinn because…?” I taunted back in the same tone he was using to me.

  “Fool
ish and clueless,” he tsked, which was pissing me off. “You know you shall die here.”

  Not if I could help it.

  “Bullies don’t scare me.” I wondered if he was holed up in one of the nearer huts, which is why I could hear, but not see him. “Neither do fraidy cats who hide themselves.”

  Yeah, it was a taunt worthy of the schoolyard, but sometimes the traditional approach worked best.

  A cloud of blue-black smoke whirled in front of me, blinding me with grit. But I didn’t have to see clearly to watch him morph from insubstantial threat into something else entirely.

  He was taller than I remembered and then realized I was looking at the other man. The one I’d been following earlier.

  “You’re a djinn, too?” I blurted out. Damn and double damn.

  “You expected only one of me?” a second voice rose from behind me. I shifted, slowly though as my every nerve ending screamed wariness.

  When I turned I could see my original target with a big cat-eating grin across his face, his blue robes replaced by loose trousers and what looked like a pirate’s shirt, but with his headscarf still covering his face. Definitely more freedom of movement than he had before. Or that I had now given I was still wearing the burqa. But even as I was thinking of my clothes I became aware that I was in my familiar jeans and a t-shirt, my hair tucked in a long braid down my back.

  On the spiritual plane you dispensed with details like reality and slipped back into how you saw yourself the way you lived in the physical realm. I’d forgotten that.

  The change worked for me. No tripping over yards of fabric if we came down to hand-to-hand combat. Now if only I could see myself with a weapon or two. Or some magic with major bite.

  “You surprise me,” Bad Guy One in front of me hissed. A sound not helping my equilibrium until I remembered djinn were often seen as snakes. Enough that if a person found one in their home, they should call out to it for three days before killing it.

  I wasn’t going to wait three days.

  A containment spell? The djinn weren’t even near one another, which would make snagging both of them at the same time almost impossible. But if I could hold one, then what?

  “Need some help witch?” came a caustic voice I recognized only too well.

  Mandy. Now what the hell was she doing here? Didn’t she get the whole worse-than-tits-on-a-bull problem she created?

  She quickly maneuvered into position back-to-back with me. I hated to point out the obvious but sometimes it was important. “You shouldn’t be here.”

  “Figured you needed help.”

  Since her very presence would draw in unwanted interest by other spirits we needed to act fast. That should be okay. But if either one of us lived she’d be holding her “help” over my head forever.

  On the other hand it wasn’t likely either of us were getting out of here. Suicide by stupidity. Unless I could cast that containment spell. First that, then a dispersal spell. Bada bing. Bada boom.

  “You humans are too stupid to not squander your useless abilities,” Bad Guy Two said over my shoulder. But who was listening to him. I kept my focus on the threat right in front of me. I started the first chant.

  “Protector, I call upon you.

  Make me a barrier between man and monsters.

  Between dark and light.

  Between good and evil.

  Protect me as I am willing to pay the cost.”

  The djinn in front of me started laughing, a high-pitched ripple of sound that made me want to cringe. But the good news? He was so cock-sure of himself he wasn’t trying to stop me. I forced even more determination into my next words.

  To the light, better things.

  To death, watch over and guide.

  To struggle and emerge, advance as I follow.

  Nothing.

  Going on forever, light shines in the darkness.

  Dispel the darkness.

  Crush the evil.

  Circle round and protect. So mote it be!

  “Not working,” Mandy butt-bumped me as we shifted, keeping our respective djinn in front of each of us.

  “Ya think?”

  “Got anything else?”

  The dispersal spell? What did we have to lose? Except our lives.

  But the djinn weren’t standing around waiting for me to get my witch act together. The one in front of me raised his hands, his face distorting as if blown in a wind tunnel. His words crashed against me.

  “Earth to earth. Fire to fire. Air to air. Return these creatures to their elements.”

  Too late I remembered that it was the djinn who taught humans sorcery.

  We were lost.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Like a fire hose set on full stun the pulse of the djinn’s magic smashed against us.

  Before it managed to hit us straight on and rearrange all of our molecules at the same time, I countered with one of the most basic spells a witch learns, a protection spell.

  Bind to blood. Blood to bind. Hear me! Hear me! Bind and bound, cease and wither.

  Bind to blood. Blood to bind. Hear me! Hear me!

  The djinn’s spell smacked against mine like two force fields converging. I could feel the pressure building around us as energy pushed against energy. This couldn’t last for long, sort of like holding an umbrella against a tsunami. But for now I was keeping the both of us from getting brain-fried.

  “Defense will only last so long,” Mandy murmured from behind me

  “Know that.”

  “So what’s next?”

  Like I had an answer. “Bring any weapons?”

  “Not across the barriers,” came her unwelcome reply. Should have figured as much. Crossing from physical to spirit realm had its own set of rules. Maybe the djinn didn’t have any weapons either.

  Except the djinn’s stronger magic.

  Her djinn was drawing closer, only a few feet away. I had a smidge more distance to reach for mine, but not much.

  Mandy still had her healing arm from a messed up training op, but if we avoided hurting her again and attacked, the offensive move might pay off. If we could catch her djinn by surprise, attacking as if Mandy and he were both human, we could buy a few seconds to come up with stronger options.

  “You ready to go in?” I asked, feeling the strain of holding the protection ward, especially over two of us. Sweat dripped down my face and torso, my arms, held high before me starting to quiver.

  “Ready on three,” she said.

  Good. If she followed up.

  “One.” I started the countdown, biting my lip in concentration.

  The djinn’s face in front of me narrowed as he pushed another shot of magic at us. I countered, but it wasn’t easy.

  “Two.”

  Had to try harder.

  Teleport in the now.

  Far and fast.

  To thine own.

  Be gone. Be gone. Be gone.

  Still nothing.

  I couldn’t press him back and he hadn’t destroyed us. Yet.

  Stalemate.

  “Ready?” I prompted Mandy.

  The word sounded like a shout over the blood pounding in my ears. But instead of an answer I heard Mandy shout. A what-the hell cry followed by her slamming against me, knocking me to my knees.

  Everything around me exploded.

  My circle of protection magic no longer held in check by the djinn’s force, I catapulted forward into a face plant. His power no longer contained mine. Over my head the whip of his dark magic sliced the air. Right where Mandy and I had been standing.

  Instead of dicing through us though I heard the death scream of the other djinn. My magic had protected him standing beyond Mandy. But he had smashed against Mandy and destroyed the barrier. Which left him open to a direct hit.

  Idiot.

  One djinn down. One left to go. Only that one was now angry. More than angry if his primordial cry was an indication.

  I rolled away from Mandy who was tangled across my le
gs and struggled to my knees. The effort of the protection spell had left me wobbly. Magic took a huge energy toll and I was paying the price. But then so was Mandy.

  She’d rolled in the direction opposite of me, which had us flanking the djinn, her to his back, me to his front. His gaze ping-ponged between us as if deciding which one to kill first. He was staring at me as I was looking past him toward Mandy and a wall of deep shadows suddenly roiling toward her from the distance.

  What the—?

  Spirits. The ones seeking a way back to the physical realm, which they could do if they reached Mandy.

  “Get out of here!” I screamed, waving both hands toward the darkness. “Now! Now!”

  A sharp grin split the djinn’s face as he realized his dilemma was solved. Do nothing and Mandy would be removed. Which left only me.

  He changed his posture, his body stilling to throw anything he had left at me.

  I was too focused on Mandy to care. She had bare moments to leave.

  I launched myself from my kneeling position, which was as effective as wind-spitting. I landed closer to the djinn’s feet than Mandy’s form but my shouts were all for her.

  “Go. Now!”

  Instead of listening Mandy got her stubborn-to-the-nth-degree expression on as she stumbled to her feet.

  Chiquita was holding her ground.

  Which meant both of us would die here. Unless I acted, and acted fast.

  But how? I had no clue how spirit-walkers passed the barrier. My trying to send her back to the physical realm could leave her trapped in between, or torn apart.

  The djinn started murmuring another spell.

  No time left.

  Sucking in a deep breath I yelled out the only removal spell that came to mind.

  Teleport in the now. Far and fast. To thine own. Be gone.

  A crack of thunder erupted. Lightening split the shadows. A shocked expression crossed Mandy’s face.