Power Play

by Kimberly Keane

  She dropped her gaze from my face and ran her eyes over me.

  “You. A little thing. People see the package, but not the power. You enjoy this.”

  “Enough.” I took a calming breath. A myriad of insults sprang to mind, immediately followed by one thought: she’s fucking impressive.

  “Thank you.” She smiled, and it granted her a beauty she lacked in her other expressions. I still didn’t like her.

  “How do we remove the curse? And how do we make sure it doesn’t take another host?”

  “For this information, we must make an offering to the spirits. Perhaps they will tell us how to lift and destroy the curse.”

  I expected her to continue, but she stayed silent and looked at only me. She’d handed me control of the situation, but I had no misconceptions that she couldn’t take it again just as easily as she had in the first place. I thought my force of will was something to be reckoned with. With Linda, I’d met more than my match, and I didn’t like it. So, chalk vanity up as another one of my faults.

  “How will the spirits of the dead know how to remove a curse?” I said.

  “I will contact the spirits of the divine, not the spirits of those that have passed.”

  “I thought you were a spiritual medium.”

  “I am. My gift will not be of help. The Lwa, the spirits, may provide an answer.”

  “Huh?”

  “The Lwa are the spirits of the divine. We cannot contact the creator directly, but they can be reached.”

  “Okay,” I said. At least it was better than “huh.”

  I was going to kill the Fates. Yeah, yeah, I’d accepted the engagement—don’t bother me with logic when I’m emotionally exacting blame on someone else.

  “What do you need to consult the spirits, how quickly can this be done, and what do you charge for this type of service?”

  “I’ll work as quickly as I can, but it will still take a full day to make everything ready. I will contact the Mambo, the priestess, to prepare for and conduct the ceremony. You will need to pay for the offering and for the ceremony. I don’t expect my gifts will be needed so I won’t charge. I will contact you when I have spoken to the Mambo.”

  “Thank you,” I said and handed her one of my cards.

  Her departure was as abrupt as the rest of her personality.

  Chapter Six

  The phone jarred me awake. I grabbed it, dropped it, cursed, then put it to my ear. Two a.m. phone calls were never a good thing, and despite their increasing frequency in my life, my heart pounded and adrenaline coursed through my system for hours after such a call.

  “Hello.” It was better than what I was thinking of saying.

  “Amanda? It’s Carol. I’m terribly sorry to wake you, but—”

  I cut her off. “What happened?”

  “Peter’s taken a turn for the worse. They don’t think he’ll live through the night.” She choked on the last word.

  “I’ll meet you there. We’ll do what we can.

  “Damn!” I said after I hung up the phone.

  I dialed both Miriam and Randy, repeated the conversation, me playing the opposite role, then dressed and bolted out the door.

  The three of us flung ourselves from the cab and into the hospital, throwing enough bills at the cab driver to cover our fare and then some. We did everything in our power not to run pell-mell through the hospital, but we would have bested the fastest power walker to Peter’s room.

  Carol was white and looked almost as drawn and pale as Peter. Her fear was tinged with a swirl of olive green and sienna—I was surprised she wasn’t in the bathroom throwing up. Mr. Bradley sat in the corner of the room, arms crossed and stone-faced. His emotions were surprisingly similar to those he’d had at our first meeting. There was no worry or fear. The self-doubt was significantly larger, and the shield of arrogance was weak and patchy, but the intense rage was still there. It was as if he felt Peter’s turn for the worse was an attack directed at him, and the only thing keeping him from a complete mental break was anger. I turned from him and thought I saw blackness rise again in his aura. I spun back toward him. His head rested on the tips of his fingers, his arms supported by his knees; he had no idea I was looking at him. There was nothing there. Maybe my mind was playing tricks on me.

  The doctor stood opposite Carol and scowled at us. His aura, originally the pale blue of sympathy changed. It was run through with gray—the color of doubt.

  “Ladies and gentleman”—his scowl deepened—“this is a hospital.” Then his face softened, the gray receding, and he turned back to Carol. “As I was saying, Mrs. Bradley, we’ve done what we can. Please, spend as much time as you can with him, and let the nurses know if they can get you anything.”

  “Doctor?” I gasped and tried to catch my breath.

  He turned to face me. The scowl and doubt returned.

  “Would there happen to be any available nursing or medical staff that could stay in the room for the next hour or so?”

  “And you are?”

  “I’m terribly sorry. Amanda Byrne.” I stepped forward and offered my hand.

  “You are related to the patient in what way?”

  “I am not related to Peter.” My hand dropped back to my side after the doctor made no attempt to shake it. I was tired of being snubbed during what should be a friendly gesture.

  “Requests for medical attention will have to be made by an individual related to the patient.”

  Carol didn’t lose a second. “Doctor Walden, can someone stay in the room for a while? Please?”

  I could have kissed her. But I didn’t smile. I let all emotion slide from my face. Anything the good doctor happened to read in my expression would only make matters worse. I’d met so many others like him, I couldn’t begin to count them. I gritted my teeth to keep from saying anything that might piss him off. I didn’t want to put Peter’s life on the line.

  “I will see what I can do,” the doctor responded. His doubt morphed into contempt, and he stalked from the room.

  We had to remove the curse immediately. Miriam, Randy, and I located three chairs and moved them into the corner the furthest from Peter’s bed and opposite the corner Mr. Bradley occupied. If our work sent Peter into some type of physical shock, we wouldn’t be able to come back to the natural realm quickly enough to get out of the doctor’s way—so we placed our physical forms across the room.

  I closed my eyes, then opened them to the preternatural realm. Randy and Miriam’s forms expanded and gained a modicum of solidity as they joined me. We nodded to each other, then turned and faced Peter. He was a shimmer—it was difficult to see the outline of his body, as if a wave of heat were rolling off the bed and obliterating my view. The doctor had overestimated the time he had left. We could count it in minutes instead of hours.

  Randy rushed to Peter’s side, closed his eyes, and inhaled. His form pulled itself tighter together, and the spirit realm shuddered around him. White lights flew from everything and everyone around the room and flitted around like fireflies. They were manifestations of life energy that Randy borrowed. He gathered them slowly, one by one, and placed them inside Peter.

  “I’m taking the curse into me,” I said. “If I don’t, he’s going to die.”

  “There has to be another way,” Miriam said.

  “Whatever you’re going to do, make it quick,” Randy shouted. “This thing is eating everything I give it, and I have a limited supply. I can’t pull anything from the other patients, and there’s only so much available in the material here. If I take too much from the rest of us, I’ll hurt someone.”

  Miriam looked around wildly. Her eyes settled on Carol, and then on me. She looked around the room, and her eyes widened. “We can use a protection shield. One to hold things in instead of out.”

  I grimaced. I wasn’t sure I could build something strong enough to contain the creature. I’d not dealt with a curse before, but the stories I had researched earlier that day spoke of their
strength and resilience. Still, it was a better option than taking the damn thing into myself.

  “You’re better than me with shielding.” I said.

  “Only when it comes to thoughts, they’ve got a particular wavelength. Your shield strength outdoes mine when it comes to psychic attacks.”

  I growled under my breath. “I’ll do my best.”

  I honed my thoughts to a point and started to build. A protection shield was, as most spells were, a construct of universal energy. Only it was one that was more solid than most spells, and it could attune itself to whatever approached it. Anything with malicious intent was held away, everything else was allowed to pass. I attuned this shield to the creature’s emotion, ensuring that the shield would be pulled toward the curse. I hoped that would keep the thing contained. I stepped backward and eyed the spell. It was smaller and rounder than most protection spells.

  “What do you think?” I asked Miriam.

  She reached out and touched it. She nodded, then held up a finger. My skin tingled. It was the only sensation I got when Miriam used any of her abilities, and I only felt it when I was in the alternate realm.

  “What did you do?”

  “I just probed it. Is there any way to make it harder?”

  “Harder?”

  “More solid. I think the thing could push through it.”

  I nodded and went to work.

  “Come on, guys,” Randy said.

  “Okay.” I stood back and wiped my preternatural forehead. “I added density, except for right here. That’s where we’ll put the curse in, and then I can seal it.”

  We turned and faced the creature.

  “How are we going to do this?” I said.

  “I’ll take the head. You take the tail.”

  “Do it already,” Randy said.

  I expected the creature to resist, but it must have known its current host was at his end. When Miriam’s hand breached Peter’s shield, the creature launched itself at her. She caught it with a hand on either side of its mouth. It twisted its head, whipped its tail around, and snapped at her. I grabbed for the tail a few times before I caught it. We wrestled it and pushed it through the weak section of the protection spell. When I let go of its tail, the creature thrashed and smacked the inside of the spell. Its movement pulled Miriam back and forth.

  She bared her teeth. “I’m losing my grip.”

  I hardened the spell and then loosened it near Miriam’s forearms. “Try to pull your hands out.”

  “I’m going to have to be quick or I’m going to lose a finger.”

  “Wait a sec. Let me loosen it around your hands more but I’ll make the holes too small for the curse.” I relaxed the spell more in those areas. “Okay. Whenever you’re ready.”

  In one quick motion, she let go of the creature and snatched her hands away. The curse’s nose followed one of her hands, but the hole was too small, and the curse stopped short. Its snout wedged into the hole, and its tail continued to smack itself against the inside of the shield.

  “I hardened it as much as I could, but I can’t push the damn thing further inside.”

  “It’ll have to do.”

  We watched Randy gather the remaining lights and place them gently inside Peter. Most of the lights hovered within the boy’s chest and dispersed outward. His form solidified, and his color turned from a pallid gray to the same silvery white as the lights Randy had called.

  After Peter’s form shone, Randy turned toward Carol. He tilted his head, first to one side, then the other. He walked around her, reached toward her protection shield, and pulled a net from it. It was virtually transparent, and judging by the look on Randy’s face, unpleasant to touch. As it came free, tendrils of power extended from Carol, then retracted, as if stretching after a long sleep.

  Miriam and I went to Randy. We began to untie the net, releasing the strands. It must have been what I’d felt on Carol’s shield when I’d first seen her in the alternate realm. The three of us worked the strands between our hands, cringing at their roughness. As I broke them down into amorphous energy, I offered it to the universe with an added intention that the energy be used for good. Instead of dissipating, the energy collected around Michael Bradley. It coated and seeped into him.

  Mr. Bradley’s form shifted weirdly as if he had been rendered by an artist specializing in the cubist movement. At first, I thought the energy absorption caused the distortion in Mr. Bradley’s appearance. But after the energy was gone, the distortion remained.

  Some of Linda Colt’s words came back to me. Mr. Bradley was stealing from Carol. He captured her energy and talent. I surmised it also allowed him a measure of control over her. My dislike for him increased exponentially. I wondered with amusement what effect my intention would have on him.

  Miriam turned and fixed me with an intense look after she saw Mr. Bradley absorb the energy. “How the hell did he do that?”

  I shook my head. “I have no idea. I can’t tell if he’s still pulling anything from her. Can you?”

  Miriam shook her head, and we both looked at Randy.

  “He’s not,” Randy said. “The net was the conduit.”

  “Thank the gods for that, at least.” Miriam pointed her thumb over her shoulder at the curse, which thrashed inside the protection-like containment spell. “Now, what are we going to do with this thing?”

  I glanced over her shoulder and watched the creature turn itself around and about, pushing against the spell. Its face, up to its eyes, was out of the shield. I didn’t think that much of its face had cleared the hole when I last looked. I narrowed my eyes and watched it, but the containment seemed to be holding. I turned back to Miriam and Randy.

  “Maybe we can create some kind of leash and tether it to one of us,” I said.

  “That sounds fun,” Randy said. “Who gets to take care of it?”

  I glanced over Miriam’s shoulder to check the impromptu spell again just as the creature’s head cleared the hole. Its tail had continued to push against the inside of the spell, allowing it enough leverage to widen the hole. It slipped free and crashed into Miriam’s protection spell. She fell forward into Randy and slid to the floor. The creature pushed itself forward, breaching her shield.

  I caught the curse’s tail and pulled. It turned, pulled itself from Miriam’s shield, and snapped at me. I threw myself backward, letting go of its tail, but managing to keep my balance. It eyed me and turned back toward Miriam.

  Ah helheim! I had to go back to plan A. I dropped my shields, reached forward, and grabbed the thing’s tail again. It turned toward me slowly and blinked a few times. I could have sworn the thing grinned before it launched itself at me. It hit my midsection with enough force to send me sprawling. My arms cartwheeled, and I slipped and went down hard.

  I stayed on the floor and caught my breath, feeling the thing settle in and coil its tail around my ribs. Dear gods, how repulsive. I closed my eyes and concentrated to see if the thing had caused any immediate damage. I didn’t find any, but it still felt greasy. I wanted more than ever to strangle the life from it. Instead, I was feeding it. Lovely.

  Miriam helped me up with a grim look on her face. “What in Hecate’s name have you done?”

  I wanted to shriek and run around the room. Terror gripped my heart and I couldn’t breathe. I closed my eyes. Tears welled but I didn’t let them fall. “Maybe I didn’t think this thing through.”

  “You think?” she said and then lowered her voice. “You exist, dammit, and you’re important.”

  I opened my eyes and looked into hers, not able to hold the tears back any longer. A wisp of a smile crossed my face. I reached out as if to lay my hand on her arm, stopped halfway there, and pulled it back. “And I don’t expect anything from you.”

  She nodded. “I know.”

  I wiped the tears away. The terror had diminished until only a healthy fear remained. “What should we do next?”

  “If he’s really the bastard he seems to be, we sho
uld let it loose on him.” She pointed at Mr. Bradley.

  “I can’t.”

  “For the love of Psyche, why not?”

  “I have to be able to look at myself in the mirror every morning.”

  “No, you don’t. I’ll have them removed.”

  I laughed. I laughed so hard tears streamed down my cheeks. I wasn’t crying again, really, I wasn’t. Still, Miriam had a way of finding the best thing to say to me in any situation, and the part that was laughter was as real as the tears. Finally, both drained out of me and I wiped my face once again. “I certainly hope Linda’s spirits have some answers.”

  “If they don’t, I’ll find a way to get this thing out of you and in him,” she said.

  “It looks like something’s happening with Peter.” Randy pointed. Doctors and nurses swarmed around the boy. I wasn’t sure if their frantic activity boded well. When we returned to the natural world, the sounds of the full room overwhelmed me. I closed my eyes and covered my ears with my hands. After a few deep breaths, I stood up and found myself face to chest with Doctor Walden. I raised my eyes to look into his. Doubt was no longer there, but happiness and anger danced within him, each looking for purchase and finding none.

  “I’ve never seen . . .” he started.

  “He should be . . .” he tried again. “I don’t know what deal you’ve made with whom, although I can pretty much guess, but at least some good has come from it.”

  The levity Miriam gave me withered. I’d helped a child. I’d taken a vile creature into myself to ensure it didn’t threaten someone I loved. I would not stand and be accused of dealing with something he considered evil.

  “Doctor Walden,” I said through gritted teeth and clamped my mouth shut. I practically choked from my enforced silence. I clenched my teeth harder, and I’m sure he knew I wanted to say something other than what I let escape my lips. “Just do your job, and let me do mine.” I turned away from him and shuddered. I wanted to scream. I wanted to hurl vitriolic phrases at him. Instead I needed to talk to Carol about what had happened with Mr. Bradley. I pushed the anger away. I wished I could force it from myself, but I hadn’t yet learned how to do that. The heat dissipated from my body or I had pushed it down so deeply that I didn’t know it was there anymore. I approached Carol and touched her gently on her shoulder.