by A. J. Locke
The first thing I did when I got to Affairs was get off the elevator at the eighth floor to make sure Dr. Lane had not shown up. The receptionist told me that she had not seen or heard from him all day and confessed that she was beginning to get worried. I turned and headed back to the elevator, ignoring her questions about if I had seen him and if I thought she should call the police. I headed up to the tenth floor and marched up to the glass doors. Where I stopped, because the doors didn’t open. Beyond them, the suite appeared empty; I didn’t even see Amy sitting at her desk. I leaned close to the glass and turned my head to see if I could look down the hallway that led to Jacob’s office but it was out of view. When I stepped back, I noticed for the first time the piece of paper that was stuck to the left side of the door saying that the office was closed. I frowned. And when I checked my phone I saw that quarter to one was less than five minutes away. Panic surged through me. I called Kyo but he didn’t answer and that didn’t make me feel good. Had he been able to get to the bridge or the bunker? Did he find them? Had he encountered some other set back?
Worse, what if I had gotten the third location wrong? I had assumed it was Affairs of the Dead, it had made all the sense in the world, but the place was closed. My hands curled into tight fists and I resisted banging them against the glass until it shattered. This had all been a wild goose chase and now it would be too late to save Carlos, Taj, and Dr. Lane. What the hell should I do now?
I lifted my phone to call Kyo again when something occurred to me. I opened the message Jacob had sent and read it again.
“A place where ghosts may touch the sky…” I muttered. I looked at the empty office suite, then raised my head and looked at the ceiling. It clicked. I wasn’t at the wrong location; I was just in the wrong place.
Jacob was on the roof.
I ran back to the elevators, got on, and hit the button for the top floor. A short ride later I was running to the door at the end of the hallway. I flung it open and ran up a short flight of steps where I met another door that I barreled through. Right onto the roof. I stood there panting for a moment, looking around wildly and trying to get my bearings. If I was wrong about this and Kyo hadn’t found them either, I had absolutely no idea what I would do.
But I wasn’t wrong. Toward the middle of the roof I caught sight of a trembling figure sitting bound to a chair. Taj. I took a step forward and whipped my head around, but did not see Carlos or Dr. Lane.
“Taj!”
When he heard my voice, Taj raised his head. It was the first time I saw him without his shades, and his unseeing eyes were wide and still able to convey the terror he felt at his predicament.
“Selene? Is that you?”
“It’s me.” I started jogging over to him when movement in my peripheral made me stop and whip my head to the side. Jacob emerged from behind some large metallic thing that I think had something to do with the building’s air conditioning system. He had a sly smile on his face. In fact, he looked absolutely deranged. Andrew’s face bearing a similar expression flashed before my eyes. The only difference was that Andrew’s mental state was mostly due to outside forces. Jacob’s was all him. That was infinitely more scary and dangerous.
I took a step back as Jacob strode forward, his eyes never leaving my face.
“So nice of you to join us,” he said. He checked his watch. “With two minutes to spare.” He smile widened.
“Where are the others?” I held my ground and clamped down on my fear. I would not cower in front of Jacob.
“Why, do you see them around anywhere?” Jacob spread his hands and moved his head from left to right as though he were looking around.
“It…it’s just Taj?” I looked around again but it was clear there were only three of us up here. The piece of equipment Jacob had stepped out from was the only place someone could be hidden.
The look Jacob gave me made me feel sick. It was a look that said he had won. I had been conquered. My hands again balled into fists. Fists that longed to punch that look right off his face until there was nothing to see under the blood. The dark feeling that surged through me with that thought almost rocked me on my feet.
“Do you take me for a fool?” Jacob said. “Because I certainly did not take you for one. I knew you would unravel my clue and pick this spot as the place to show up. But what good would it have been for me to have all my collateral gathered here?”
“What do you want?” My voice was practically a growl. “You killed that girl, Ailani, and framed Ethan for her murder, now you kidnap my friends. What do you want, Jacob?”
“I thought I already made that abundantly clear,” he said. “I want to ruin your life.” He walked over to Taj and laid a hand on his shoulder, which made Taj flinch. It was all I could do not to run over and wrench Taj away from him. “You see, I thought I was on the right track after I recruited our friend here to help me shed light on your darkest secrets. I thought for sure the uproar would be the beginning of your downfall, but the timing was poor, what with these Savages running around and darkness infesting the land like some biblical plague.”
“So you decided to take a more drastic, deadlier approach.”
“Things weren’t going my way.” His eyes had narrowed and his voice dropped. “And young Taj here was starting to have second thoughts and wanted to back out. I guess I had not totally convinced him that you were the devil. Or perhaps there was a viper whispering in his ear, swaying him.”
“Selene…I’m so…so sorry. I’m so sorry…”
“It’s okay, Taj, it’s okay.”
Jacob’s face looked furious and he slapped Taj across the face, almost causing the chair to fall over.
“It’s not okay!” he roared. “It will not be okay until you suffer the way I have suffered. Until you are broken and torn down, and fallen so far you don’t think you could get any lower. Until your life is in so many pieces you will never be able to put it back together again. Until you are a shell of a human being carrying the weight of losing all the people you love. Like I am.” That last part came out as an anguished hiss. I knew Jacob was a broken man, and I knew it was because of actions on my part, but he had chosen to break the law in order to punish me and I had to stop him.
The question was, how?
“So the articles didn’t work.” Jacob seemed to have regained himself. His voice was more composed and his expression was less savage although it was still sinister. “Whatever was I to do?”
“Kill an innocent girl? You are an evil, evil, sick bastard. That girl did not deserve to die like that!”
“Her blood is on your hands,” Jacob said. “You brought this on yourself you bitch, when you destroyed my brother, my sister-in-law, and the legacy of my father’s company. We have to close down, did you know that? The government will no longer fund us. Ghosts who knew about the things that happened here when they were alive are making a point not to come here. Imagine that! We are being shunned by the dead.” He let out a maniacal laugh. “So our funding has stopped and our doors can no longer stay open.”
“That is not my fault,” I said. “I did not cause any of the things that happened here.”
“I beg to differ,” Jacob said.
I didn’t bother to argue with him. It was after one and I had bigger concerns. “Where are Dr. Lane and Carlos?”
“Dead,” he said with a shrug.
My eyes widened. “No…no…you’re lying.”
“Why would I have reason to lie to you about the death of your friends?” That sick smile curled his lips again. “I kept them elsewhere, under the supervision of some hired help who were told to shoot them immediately at one o’clock unless told otherwise from me.”
“No!” I couldn’t stop myself from running up to him and punching him in the face. He staggered back but didn’t fall. “You bastard! Where are they! Where are they!” I went for another punch but he was ready this time and double fisted me in the stomach before slamming me to the ground, head first. I rolled to
the side, stunned, as the wind was knocked out of me, but refused to stay down. I dragged myself up even though my head was throbbing and my vision was shaky.
“They’re dead! You were never in a position to save them all and you won’t save this one either.” My vision settled just in time to see him pull out a gun and point it at Taj’s head. At the feel of the barrel of a gun pressed to his temple, Taj started wailing. Without really thinking, I launched myself at Jacob again and knocked him backward. We fell with me on top of him and I struck out again. He brought his forearm up to deflect the blow, and I tried to wrench the gun away, but his hold on it was too tight. He kneed me in the stomach and shoved me off him before scrambling to his feet and pointing the gun at my head now.
“Don’t try that again,” he snarled. “Or I will put as many bullets as I can into you without killing you. Because death would be too quick a punishment. The suffering is not nearly as long enough as I would like it to be for you.” He moved the gun back in Taj’s direction and walked over to him.
“Don’t do this.” I wanted to move closer but didn’t dare. “Jacob, don’t do this. Your grievance is with me, let it stay between us. You don’t have to involve anyone else.”
“Oh, but I do,” he said. “Because to truly destroy you I also have to destroy those around you, those you really care about. I know these three men are not truly your weakness, but they are a means to an end. You will take the fall for their murders.”
“That won’t stick,” I said.
“Of course it will,” he said. “Because I already coerced all the evidence I needed against you out of them. People can lie like champs when there’s a gun to their head.”
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Taj kept saying. “He made me do it, he made me say things…”
“Taj, shh, it’s okay.” It was as far from okay as it could get, but this was one of those moments where it called for soothing nonsense words that made no difference.
“I am not one step ahead of you, I am ten,” Jacob said. “Everything I need to bring you down is in place.”
The entire time he was talking I had been feeling a flood of dead magic, stronger than I usually felt. Sudden movement behind Jacob made me look to see Snake Eyes slithering from the shadows of the staircase. I had not given any thought as to where my ghost snake was, but it seemed Snake Eyes had given thought to me. And now I saw things with a clarity I had not seen them with before.
I tuned in to my connection to Snake Eyes and gave him a silent command. Just as I heard the gun cock, Snake Eyes flew at Jacob and wrapped itself around him. Jacob released a terrified howl as he struggled, twisting his neck around to see what had suddenly gotten hold of him. He screamed even louder when Snake Eyes’s huge face and bulbous red eyes were level with his. The gun fell to the ground. I took a few steps forward. Jacob’s body was entirely enveloped by the ghost snake. Only his shoulders and head were free. Snake Eyes’s head loomed up behind him and he flicked his tongue out as he stared at me. But right now I only had eyes for Jacob.
I tuned out his screams and curses and reached for my reanimation power. I shot it straight at Jacob, and moments later I felt my power ensnarl his soul. Jacob’s body clenched and he started breathing in quick, short gasps as though he could feel not only the constraint from the ghost snake, but the tight grip I had on his ghost. Now I felt a smile that had nothing to do with humor curl my lips. I felt wild and powerful, and dark. Deep, agonizing, scorching hot emotions surged through me, charged up by every horrible thing I was dealing with. As I stared into Jacob’s eyes, saw his struggles and the anger he tried to push above his fear, I knew this was not the only way to end this. Snake Eyes held him securely; I could incapacitate him then call the police and have him arrested. There was evidence galore to lock him up.
But that’s not what I wanted to do.
No, I wanted to inflict a much worse pain than that on the man who thought he could use his own pain to ruthlessly tear me apart. Who murdered an innocent girl, got Ethan arrested, and got Taj, Carlos, and Dr. Lane kidnapped. And killed, in the case of Carlos and Dr. Lane. That made my anger surge even more. No. Jail was too good a punishment for Jacob McNabb.
I called my reanimation power back. And with it, I pulled Jacob’s ghost from his body.
His body immediately surrendered to death. His struggles abruptly ended, his eyes went blank, his body slack, and he crumpled to the ground as Snake Eyes released his hold on him. I was now faced with Jacob’s ghost, who could no longer hold on to the pretense of being angry and intimidating. He was terrified.
“What did you do?” he screeched. “You fucking bitch! You bitch!”
I was still smiling as I slowly drew Jacob’s ghost closer. Now I let the dead magic free. It attached to my reanimation power and traveled toward Jacob. Reanimation power wasn’t necessarily visible to the naked eye, but dead magic was. When Jacob saw that black wave coming at him, his eyes widened.
“What are you doing?” His voice was a breathy whisper, but once the dead magic engulfed him, he started to scream again. I was numb to all of it as I shoved the dead magic back inside me. Jacob’s wailing ghost came with it, and I staggered when his ghost slammed into me, then was absorbed by my body. For a moment my power flared with the addition of Jacob’s ghost energy, then I felt him travel down the connection between myself and Garrus until I could no longer hear his screams in my head.
What I was left with was a dead body on the ground, an extremely scared man tied to a chair, and my bound ghost snake looking at me as though he very much approved of what I had just done. I felt Garrus as well, as a pulse of power and satisfaction that faded after a moment. I had made him stronger. Again.
Once my dead magic and reanimation power were settled inside me again, I retrieved Jacob’s gun from where it had skittered away and slowly walked over to his body. I wasn’t sure how I felt right now. It was as though I was detached from myself, unable to fully process the choice I had just made to suck Jacob’s soul into oblivion when there had been other ways to end it. All I knew was that in that moment, the way I had felt, that was the only solution I wanted. How would I feel once that feeling wore off? I guess I’d find out.
But I did have some clarity because I knew that even though Jacob had committed atrocious crimes, it had ended by me killing him. Which I couldn’t change, but what I could change was the narrative. Instead of letting it be known that my bound ghost snake had immobilized Jacob so I could take his soul, I could say I killed him in self-defense during our scuffle.
I raised the gun and shot Jacob’s body twice in the chest.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
“Selene?”
“Kyo!” Relief flooded through me and my grip on my cell phone tightened. “Where the hell are you? I’ve been trying to reach you!”
“Sorry, I was pre-occupied with a rather intense fight at Renton’s bunker.”
My heart clenched. “The thugs he hired to kill Carlos and Dr. Lane. Are they…”
“They’re alive. I got to them in time and I was able to fight off their captors.”
“Did you kill them?”
“No, I figured I probably should try to stay away from murder now that I’m back in my body. I incapacitated them and called the police once I freed Carlos and Lane. They were taken to a hospital. Where are you, what’s going on?”
“I’m still at Affairs,” I said wearily. Though I was no longer on the roof. I was standing outside the building, which was swarming with way more cops and paramedics than were needed. Jacob’s body was being wheeled out in a body bag and I had to turn away and try to get a grip on myself. Something cold and sharp twisted in my stomach when I recalled the way I had ruthlessly decided to send his ghost not only to the In Between, but to be food for another ghost. My actions frightened me, and I again recalled the fortune my mother had read me about the two paths I could walk down. More and more, darkness seemed to be winning.
“Selene, you there?”
; I swallowed past the dryness in my throat and tried to focus on talking to Kyo. “Yeah, I’m here.” My voice was a little shaky. I cleared my throat. “Jacob had Taj tied up on the roof. We fought, and Snake Eyes actually showed up and helped me gain the upper hand. I ended up having to shoot him though. Taj is a bit bruised up but seems to be okay. The ambulance just left with him.”
“That’s a relief,” Kyo said. “Looks like you managed to save all of them.”
“Yeah,” I said hollowly. I knew this was a victory, but it was a battle I wished I never had to fight. There should have been some other way for me to settle things with Jacob. Now I was responsible for the death of two McNabbs. I wasn’t sure how to handle that. I think I needed far more extensive therapy than I was already getting.
“Do you want me to come meet you?” Kyo asked.
“No,” I said. “I’m done talking to the cops and giving my statement. I just want to go home. Meet me there.”
“Will do.”
We hung up and I headed to my car, hoping I could make the drive home without becoming unhinged. As I drove off, a familiar presence and a glance in the rearview mirror made me see that Snake Eyes was curled up in the backseat.
“Hitching a ride. Does that mean you’re proud of me?” My voice was a sad whisper. I wasn’t proud of myself.
* * *
Jacob was off my plate, but Ethan was still in jail. He was being held at the PTF jail in Harlem, and nothing I did was getting him released. A week had passed since Jacob met his demise. Taj, Carlos, and Dr. Lane were doing well; I’d seen all three of them. Carlos was already back to his suffocating hidey-hole putting things back together so he could get back to his illegal business. Dr. Lane and Taj were taking leave from work. All three of them had given statements to the police that condemned Jacob’s actions, and the men he’d hired to kill Lane and Carlos were under police supervision while they recovered from Kyo’s ass whopping, after which they’d be thrown in jail. And while the PTF head honchos agreed that something was shady about the crime Ethan was accused of, the evidence still pointed to Ethan being the killer. No murder weapon had ever been recovered though. And unfortunately, Carlos had told me that Jacob made him disable all of the camera feeds in the vicinity of Ailani’s building before he went in to kill her. But even that admission wasn’t getting Ethan out of jail.