Price dug a pair of riot cuffs out of his pockets.
“Actually, give those to me first.” I explained the telekinetic stuff that had been happening and then summoned my null magic. It flowed powerfully. I fed it into the cuffs, turning them into a null. I handed them to Price, who pulled Matthew’s arms behind his back and fastened the cuffs on his wrists. He wouldn’t be tinkering anybody anytime soon.
I went to Arnow, who hadn’t moved. I poured my magic over her, trying to disrupt the spells he’d put on her. She still didn’t move. Whatever Matthew had done to her, nulling magic wasn’t going to fix it. For all I knew, he’d cut her spinal cord or something.
“We’ll get you help,” I promised as I pulled her arms back over her head and down to her sides. “You’re going to be fine.” A heal-all wouldn’t fix tinker work. It had something to do with tinker magic making the physical modifications look natural, like a person had been born that way.
Price had joined me then. He pulled me into a hug and held me. We stood like that for a good minute before he loosened his grip. I expected a lecture on going off on my own, but he didn’t say anything at all.
“I’m not sure anybody can walk,” I said awkwardly, after a long moment of silence.
He didn’t get a chance to answer. One second he stood in front of me, the next he was flying across the room. He smashed off the wall and dropped to the floor in a heap. I started to run to him, but the couch came sliding toward me. I dodged to the side, but it pivoted back around. I jumped onto it to keep from getting run over.
Chairs rose in the air and dive-bombed me. I ducked and lunged off my perch. One chair rammed my back, and the couch bashed into me, shoving me toward the wall. I pulled up my magic and pushed it out. It was unformed, but potent. It flooded outward, killing every bit of magic in its path.
The chairs fell with a clatter. I rolled away as the couch stopped. I held my magic in place, pushing into every nook and cranny of the room.
Price picked himself up. “What the hell was that?”
“I think we’ve got a poltergeist. I’m nulling the room.” It was the only thing that made sense. They were spirits who hadn’t crossed over who retained their magical talents. In this case, Casper had been telekinetic in life and now death.
“If it is a poltergeist, it’s not your biggest fan,” Price said.
“What do we do about it?”
“Talk sweet and give it a cookie?”
At least he was joking. That was positive. “I can’t hold this field forever,” I said. “When I drop it, Casper the not-so-friendly ghost will attack again.” But the answer popped into my head almost as soon as I asked. I looked around for what I needed and didn’t see anything workable.
“I need something metal or glass or stone. Something we can carry with us.”
Price dashed out of the room and returned a minute later with a frying pan. Perfect. He handed it to me.
This next bit was going to be tricky. I needed to maintain the null field while simultaneously creating a null that we could use to protect ourselves as we left. At first I couldn’t seem to manage. I’d concentrate too much on the frying pan, and the field would flicker and start to die. I’d bolster it back up, and the magic I’d woven around the frying pan would unravel. I didn’t have a lot of practice doing both at once.
After a few minutes, I found my groove. I had to notice everything at once and let my instincts and muscle memory take the lead.
By the time I was done, I felt like I’d been through a taffy-pulling machine for a few hours.
I handed the pan to Price. “Invoke it,” I said, my voice more croaking frog than human woman.
I felt him activate it, and I reeled the room’s null field back into me. As I finished, I sagged, my legs wobbly. I caught my hands on my knees, letting my head dangle as I drew in several deep breaths.
Price went to check on the prisoners. None of them spoke. They looked at us with staring eyes and chalky faces. Arnow’s three remained contorted. My stomach twisted as I realized that Matthew had tinkered them all. If I had to guess, I’d say he’d cut their vocal cords and then messed with their bodies to suit his sense of divine justice.
“I need to call Taylor and let her know we have them. And that we’ll need tinkers.”
“What are you going to do about proof of life?”
Savannah’s lieutenants weren’t going to just take my word that we had rescued their families. I’d expected to let the hostages talk for themselves and provide their own proof.
“Send pictures, I guess, then drive like a bat out of hell back to the city so they can see for themselves.”
“We’ll need another set of wheels,” Price said.
“Two will have to do. We don’t have any other drivers. We saw a couple pickup trucks earlier. Maybe there’s something in the garage or a barn that will hold more people.” I looked down at the prone man. “His full name is Matthew Morrell. Savannah’s son.”
GETTING EVERYBODY upstairs proved easier than I expected. Price lifted two at a time on wind gurneys. I made another big null out of a waffle iron. Two nulls meant I could leave one in the basement and one upstairs to protect Matthew’s victims from the poltergeist. I decided it was the better part of wisdom to create a third one out of a soup ladle so that I didn’t have to worry about Price when he moved the hostages.
Upstairs, I texted Taylor, sending pictures of each of the hostages. I told her they’d been tinkered not to talk or move and that we’d be needing medical help. I also told her to ask the lieutenants to think really carefully about which tinkers they could trust with the lives of their loved ones. Then I went in search of a vehicle.
Unfortunately, the poltergeist decided I not only needed company, I needed entertainment. First, it pulled the rug out from under me. Literally. I landed on my hands and knees. And I’d just used a heal-all. Now I’d have to suffer through the wormy feeling all over again.
“Would you just stop it?” I asked, standing up. A sconce ripped out of the wall in response. I drew up my power and pushed out a null field. The sconce dropped, dangling from its wires.
This totally wasn’t going to work. Whatever was after me needed to be bottled, or we’d never get out of here. I’d be pleasantly surprised if it hadn’t gone out and torn apart all the drivable vehicles.
I was out in the first big sitting room. Price had chosen the solarium for the victims as he transported them out of the basement. I turned in a circle.
“Why don’t you just tell me what your problem is? Write it on a wall or something.”
I retracted my null field to allow for a response. I got nothing. Of course not. Why would a ghost tell me what it wanted? Why not just bludgeon me to death to make its point? It was probably sticking its tongue out at me right now because I was too stupid to figure it out for myself.
Let’s try this again. “Why do you want me dead? Come on, spill it. You know you want to gloat. It’s time for the bad guy soliloquy part of this movie. You know, where you brag on your evil triumph so your victim will know just how awesome you are.”
I waited. Still nothing. What else could I do? Aside from those nuclear-powered electronic gun things from Ghostbusters, how did one neutralize a ghost? Didn’t shamans use sage? ’Course, I wasn’t a shaman, nor did I have any sage handy. Didn’t have a Catholic priest for any exorcism action either. So where did that leave me?
Tired, pissed off, with sore knees. So pretty much business as usual.
I rubbed my forehead. Why couldn’t the serial killer have been the worst of my worries?
I paced. Fact: the ghost could travel outside of any null field. Fact: nulls didn’t work well on moving cars, which meant once we got going, our annoying little pest could pop the tires or tear apart the engine, and we’d be stranded. Or worse. Fact: if Casper
was strong enough, he could shove us off a cliff.
Maybe I should stay behind. Maybe it would stay focused on me and not follow the others. I snorted. Yeah, Price would go for that. And then for his next trick, he’d fly to the moon. Wasn’t going to happen.
Twenty minutes later I still hadn’t come up with a solution. Price came in.
“Did you find something?”
I shook my head. “The ghost is going to be a problem.”
I could see the wheels spinning in his head as he put two and two together. He scowled.
“I don’t suppose you have any bright ideas?” I asked hopefully.
He shook his head.
“You could go without me—”
He just gave me the look.
“I wonder if Google has any ideas,” I said, desperation getting the better of sense. I tapped out a search on my phone. A whole bunch of websites popped up, with a Wiccan site topping the list. I read it and then stopped and reread it again. I grinned. Maybe I wasn’t as far up shit creek as I’d thought. In fact, if my head had been fastened on right, I’d have figured it out a half hour ago.
“Just a second,” I told Price.
“What are you going to do?”
“Send this bastard where he belongs.” I dropped into trace sight. It wasn’t that hard to find the ghost. He hovered over a lamp only a few feet away. He was mostly a white glowing apparition, but I could make out that he was beefy, with short hair and wearing jeans and a button-up shirt. His mouth pulled unnaturally down to the right. The rest of his face appeared mottled and wrinkled with what looked like burn or acid scars. Half his nose was gone, along with one ear and a patch of hair.
His trace was gray, but flickers of silver ran down it. I reached into the trace to grab it.
“I’ll be back in a minute,” I told Price, and then plunged myself into the trace dimension.
As usual, the cold slammed me like a fist. It dug under my clothes and pushed inward. All around me, jewel-colored lights and streamers flashed and rippled through an endless velvet night. I grabbed the poltergeist’s trace with both hands and yanked, letting my power flow through my hands. A second later, the he popped into being in front of me, looking very surprised.
“You belong here, not the other side,” I told him. “See you around.”
“Thank you.”
The sincerity of the two words caught me up short. “Excuse me?”
“I couldn’t cross.”
“Is that why you were throwing a tantrum up there? And why start hanging out with Matthew?” I had started to shiver. This realm was for the dead and meant to increase its population by one if I stayed too long.
“I was hexed.”
“By who? Why?”
His body started to fade. His trace now rippled with gold, orange, and pink. I wasn’t sure what happened to the dead when they made the crossing. My mother looked just like what she did when she’d died, except transparent.
“All is not what it seems,” he said in whispery voice. “Watch for the serpent in the garden.”
With that, he floated away, a ball of colored light. My teeth chattered. I needed to get out of here. I grabbed hold of my own trace and followed it back to where I’d left Price.
He hadn’t moved. The moment I appeared, he pulled me against him, rubbing his hands up and down my arms and back to help warm me.
“He’s gone,” I said, my voice muffled. My face was pressed into his chest. He unzipped his coat and pulled me inside, his warmth and spicy scent enveloping me. I snuggled closer, wrapping my arms around his waist.
“Good riddance.”
“He said he was hexed and thanked me for helping him cross. He also said that all is not what it seems and that I should watch out for a serpent in the garden. Does that make me Eve and you Adam?”
His chest rumbled as he chuckled. “I bet you’d look hot in a couple of fig leaves.”
“So we don’t need a serpent or an apple for you to want to jump my bones, is what you’re saying.”
“I’m saying I love your apples and my serpent is always available for you.”
I groaned, and he laughed again, then kissed me. It wasn’t nearly long enough, but then, I never got enough of him.
“We’d better go find transportation,” he said.
I sighed and pushed away. “To be continued later.” How much later, I didn’t know. There was still a war going on back home.
WE FOUND A NISSAN Armada in the garage, along with a BMW sedan and a restored 1978 Chevelle.
The Armada had three rows of seats. I figured it could carry six or seven people besides the driver. With Price’s Wrangler, we could haul everybody, though it would be tight. Not that we had a choice. I wasn’t sure anybody could sit up on their own, and I anticipated there was going to be a serious mess to clean up when we got back to Diamond City, but it wasn’t like we could sit them all on a toilet before we left. I didn’t even know if they were capable of going to the bathroom right now, anyway.
It turned out, we didn’t have to wait for things to start getting messy. More than a couple people had wet their pants or worse. All we could do was get them loaded and plan to drive fast.
Price kept giving me the side-eye as he loaded everybody up. I buckled them in and shoved pillows I’d scavenged from the house around each to help keep them upright. Arnow’s three people couldn’t be straightened. We put the third seat down in the Armada and fitted them in together, trying to make them as comfortable as possible. I kept telling everybody they’d be okay, that we were taking them to safety. I hoped they believed me.
We put Arnow in the front of the Armada with me. It unnerved me to see her so lifeless, but her trace told me she was anything but dead.
“What about you?” Price asked after we loaded the last person up. He touched my cheek lightly with his fingers.
“I could use a gallon of coffee and a six-pack of Red Bull.”
“This is all I’ve got.” He handed me a chocolate bar. I took it like it was the most precious thing I’d ever seen.
“If I didn’t love you before, I would now.”
“You’re easy.”
I smiled. “Only when it comes to you.”
I’d had a one-word text back from Taylor in response to me telling her we had the hostages: Good. Nothing else. I itched to know more, but she didn’t need me bugging her, and it wasn’t like there was anything I could do, anyhow.
I drove the Armada and followed Price, since I didn’t want to trust myself to remember the route back through Denver. Plus, he could use his talent to clear the snow off the road, which was necessary after his homemade blizzard.
We didn’t get back to Diamond City until well after dark. As we approached, I realized that we hadn’t planned where to go. I’d assumed Savannah’s place, but with it being a war zone, that was less than a good idea. I’d have liked to go to Maya, but she worked for Touray, and I couldn’t risk it.
I called Taylor.
She answered on the third ring. “Where are you?”
“Just outside the city. We need a tinker and somewhere safe to go.”
“Bring them here. They want to see them in person.”
I interpreted they to mean the Seedy Seven and them as the hostages. “Can we get through?”
“Touray’s army tried to overwhelm us a couple hours ago. We held on, but they’re still on the front steps. We’ll need to travel you.”
My father, Vernon, had kidnapped me once the one and only time I’d ever travelled through dreamspace. It wasn’t exactly safe. I reminded Taylor.
“We don’t have much choice.”
I thought of Price and his talent. Maybe we could make things safer.
“Let me talk to Price,” I said. “I’ll get b
ack to you.”
I hung up and called Price back. “Pull over. We need to talk.”
He turned into the parking lot of a scenic viewpoint. The snow lay a good two feet deep on the asphalt, but he swept it away with a blast of wind. I was impressed. He really was getting good at using it.
We both got out.
“What’s up?”
“We have to go to Savannah’s. Your brother’s got the place surrounded. Taylor wants to send travellers, but—” I shrugged, and he nodded agreement. “I had this idea. I could push a null field out beyond the vehicles a ways and shut down nearby magic. I’d leave you space to blow up such a cloud of snow to keep anybody from seeing us. And if someone did launch something at us, you should be able to deflect it.”
“Could work.”
“You’re not too tired?”
“Are you?”
The truth was that I felt damned raggedy and was starting to see double. “I’m good.”
“So am I.”
With the lies out of the way, I focused on the logistics of our plan. “It would be a whole lot easier if we weren’t driving two vehicles. Do you think we could load everybody into one?”
“It won’t be comfortable.”
“It won’t be for long.”
“Let’s take the Nissan. It’s bigger.”
With that, he used his talent to transfer everybody one by one while I texted Taylor the plan. I did my best to make the injured fit in the Wrangler with some level of comfort. We put five people in the very back, five more in the back seat with two sitting on laps between people, and Arnow in the front seat.
“Do you want me to drive?” I asked Price.
He looked me over. “I think I’m in better shape.”
I couldn’t argue that. “Are you going to be able to split your focus on the wind and the road?”
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